XpressGas Limited

Subsidy : January 2023 - November 2023

BIO has granted EUR 7,701 of technical assistance to XpressGas, an LPG company in Ghana, to conduct a HAZOP study.

Amount

€ 7,701.00

Type of investment

Subsidy

Beneficiary locations

Africa: Ghana

Investment field

Enterprises

Activity

G46.71 Wholesale of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and related products

Organisation

XpressGas Limited

Website

https://xpressgas.com/

Domicile

Ghana

More investments in

XpressGas Limited

Debt € 2,444,790.00 (2021)

XpressGas or ‘XPG’ is a regulated LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) Marketing Company that transports, markets and distributes LPG to:

Refilling stations: This is bulk supplies in storage tanks (from 1 to 25 MT) and represents the historical activity of the company known as the B2B segment;
Small businesses(such as bakeries, food vendors) and households in branded cylinders of 6 kg, 15 kg and 50 kg, provided either directly at their doorsteps or very close by at one of XPG’s vendor shop in sparsely populated areas. This is known as the B2C segment.

XpressGas Limited is the fastest-growing and one of the largest LPG companies in Ghana. The company currently has 31,000 branded LPG cylinders under management and 27 LPG bulk road and delivery vehicles and it operates a network of 60 LPG refilling stations and vendors across Ghana. The main focus of the business is on the peri-urban and rural areas of the country.

Over 75% of Ghana’s household population still relies on charcoal and kerosene as their primary sources for cooking fuel. With 94% of customers first-time LPG users, XpressGas has a direct positive impact on the air quality of its clients, reducing CO2 emissions, averting deforestation and reducing black carbon emissions, with considerable environmental and health benefits. The company’s ambitions are fully aligned with Ghana’s government’s stated target to increase the usage of LPG as cooking fuel by 50% in 2030 and to raise awareness on environmental, health and safety matters.

Technical assistance

The aim of the project is to assist Xpress Gas (XPG) to conduct a HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) study of their operations in Ghana. The project was included by BIO's E&S team as part of the project environmental and social action plan. HAZOP studies are typically among the most common tools used within the chemical and petroleum industry to obtain safer, more efficient, and more reliable plants. The specific objectives of the study are the following:

Investigate how and to what extent the company's system and plant processes deviate from the design intent and create risk for personnel and equipment and operability problems;
Identify potential hazards and operability issues in the process itself (Hazard and Operability Analysis) and propose preventive actions;
Find potential situations that would cause that element to pose a hazard or limit the operability of the process as a whole."

Expected impact

The HAZOP study will provide a comprehensive risk assessment of XPG's processes against catastrophic risk and adequate control/corrective measures. Based on the study output, the ESAP foresees as next steps the harmonisation, the recommendation and mitigation actions for each type of station; and the development of a station encroachment monitoring and management plan. This will allow XPG to mitigate the safety and security risks related to potential accidents occurring specifically in its LPG stations located in urban areas.

Overall, the project will enable the development of necessary, including site-specific, adjustments and mitigation measures aimed at ensuring better compliance and increased safety and security of all XPG's operations.