Prices of cooking gas, kerosene skyrocket, as 1kg of LPG hits N500 in Lagos

[By VICTOR NZE]

Price of cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has more than doubled by over 40 per cent in parts of the country, especially in Lagos, as at Monday.

Many distributors of the product who responded to Oracle Today queries say the reasons are yet to be explained to them by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), or any of their subsidiaries.

Years after migrating households in the country away from the traditional firewood, coal and charcoal and then later Kerosene to the cooking gas, it appears Federal Government has subjected Nigerians to arbitrary increases in the price of the product.

From the street price of barely N150/kg some five years back during the campaign to popularize the cooking gas option in households, the product has continuously jumped in price at every slightest movement occasioned by distribution lapse, foreign exchange snag, or industrial action by industry workers.

Barely a week after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Price Watch Report for July 2021 showed an increase in the price of 12.5kg of the commodity by as much as 3.1 per cent in July from June, this year, the commodity may be reaching a 40 per cent mark before end of August.

Oracle Today findings report that 1kg of gas is retailed at N500 in parts of Lagos, as at Monday by both the major distributors and retailers.

The latest price translates into N6500 for the 12.5kg cylinder refill, representing a huge jump from the N4, 400 reported in July by the NBS and the N4, 289 it was sold for in June, this year alone.

The latest surge in price of the product can be attributed to the low supply of the product from the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), especially into rural areas where it is being demanded, as well as scarcity and high cost of foreign exchange (FX) for importation.

It would be recalled that an NBS data reported last week the price of cooking gas increased by N133 from the average price of N4, 289 it was sold for in June 2021.

According to the data, Abuja recorded the highest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cooking gas with N5,050, followed by Gombe at N5,000 and Kogi at N4,985, with Kaduna State registering the lowest average price of refilling of the cylinder size as it sold on at an average of N3,718.1.

This is followed by Zamfara and Oyo, which sold to end-users for N3,725.4 and N3,859 respectively.

For the 5kg cylinder, the average cost of buying cooking gas increased nationwide in the month under review from N2,068.7 to  N2,141.6, indicating a 3.5 per cent increase month-on-month.

The data showed that Akwa Ibom, Benue, and Bauchi States were regions with the highest average prices of refilling 5kg cylinder of LPG as the product was sold to consumers for N2,600, N2,540, and N2,486 in those areas respectively.

Abuja saw the lowest average cost at which people refilled their 5kg cylinder for N1,806.2, while people in Lagos did theirs at the price of N1,840.8, while Ondo residents did theirs for an average cost of N1,842.9.

On a broader view, it was observed that the highest average cooking gas prices were recorded in the North Central region which has an average cost of N4775.5 while the North-West zone recorded the lowest to the sum of N4083.7.

As for the 5kg cylinder, it was most expensive in the North-East zone at N2306.7, unlike in the South West region where it was sold on average to consumers for N1882.6.

The price of LPG has maintained its upward trajectory since December last year and has left an increasing number of its consumers in the nation lamenting over the ugly situation considering the economic reality.

He same applies to kerosene, which has seen a massive price jump by up 7.3 per cent to reach N387 per litre in parts of the country, this week.

The average amount paid by consumers in Nigeria for kerosene increased in July by 7.3 per cent to N397.34 per litre from N370.29 per litre recorded in June 2021.

This was revealed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its recently released National Household Kerosene Price Watch for July 2021.

According to the data, there was an 18.4 per cent year-on-year increase in the average cost of the commodity per litre when compared to the N335.5 recorded in July last year.

In Ebonyi State, the average price of kerosene was N520.83 per litre in the month under review, 46.9 per cent higher than N354.44/litre it cost July 2020, but 8.9 per cent higher than N478.33/litre paid in June 2021.

This was followed by Taraba and Jigawa state where it was sold for N491.8 and N457.4 per litre, indicating an increase of 26.2 and 47.55 per cent year-on-year and 0.68 and 14.06 per cent month-on-month, respectively.

The case was quite different in Bayelsa state where the commodity was sold at the lowest average of N241.7 per litre, which is a 3.7 per cent drop from the N250.95 it was sold for at the same period last year, but a 7.7 per cent higher than the price last month.

Similarly, the lowest average price of kerosene per litre was recorded in Adamawa and Niger state, where it was sold for N316.67 and N338.64 respectively.

The average price of the commodity paid by consumers nationwide per gallon increased by 3.8 per cent to N1,302.7 in July from N1,255.2 last month. This relatively indicates a 7.9 per cent increase from the N1218.5 recorded at the same in 2020.

Observing the highest average price at which kerosene was sold per gallon, it was revealed that states within this bracket were Ekiti at N1,591.7, Plateau at N1,556.25, and Abuja at N1,480.00.

Meanwhile, Yobe, Rivers, and Bayelsa states were areas where it was sold at the lowest as residents in those states paid, on average, N1,080, N1,081.6, and N1,088.5 respectively for the commodity per gallon.

Kerosene has remained a very vital source of energy for cooking for most families, both in rural areas and cities.

The report also showed that consumers of the commodity in the South-West zone of the country paid less at N374.9 per litre, while it cost the highest at N410.5 in North Central Zones.