FG mandates NMDPRA to resolve persistent rise in cooking gas prices

Federal Government has mandated a committee to be headed by Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to find a lasting solution to the constant rise in prices of cooking gas ‘within one week.’

The committee to be headed by the NMDPRA’s Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed, is tasked with resolving the persistent hikes in the retail price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, across the country, which has hit N1, 200 in Lagos and other cities.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, further tasked the committee to resolve the challenges of constant price increment of LPG in the country’s domestic market.

“With the exponential increase in the price of LPG, there is the need for the Federal Government to intervene and I am that representative at this moment,” Ekpo said.

A statement issued by Louis Ibah, minister’s Spokesperson after a stakeholders meeting, quoted the Ekpo as mandating a committee headed by Farouk Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, to find a solution within one week.

The meeting had in attendance top officials of Chevron Nigeria Limited led by Sansay Narasimha; NMDPRA, led by its Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed and the NNPC Ltd.

Ekpo mandated the committee to recommend the best way to boost supplies and crash LPG prices, saying that the key challenges identified as responsible for the price increase included FX sourcing for imports and insufficient supply to the domestic market by producers.

He expressed the concerns of President Bola Tinubu over the astronomical increase in the price of cooking gas and the attendant hardship on the majority of citizens, as he further noted that the increase manifested where some of the multinational firms were more concerned with gas exports without dedicating huge volumes for the domestic market.

This, Ekpo said was unacceptable and should be discouraged since the country had abundant gas reserves.

“We acknowledge that some producers are exporting while we are faced with the challenges of importation.

“Public interest is the overriding interest all over the world for the government and the demand for LPG will increase as we approach December.

“You have a public service obligation to collaborate with the government to ensure security of gas supply.

“We need to therefore bend backwards and find solutions, to ensure that we have sufficient supply and stability in-country and that Nigerians have gas,” said the minister.

It would be recalled that penultimate week, cooking gas suppliers had assured of an end to the current scarcity of the commodity in parts of the country, including Lagos, Kano and Borno states, and others.

The gas dealers who blamed the current scarcity on the breakdown of a marine vessel scheduled to feed the Lagos terminal with the commodity, as they claimed the situation is temporary.

So far, with the terminal in Lagos still rationing supplies to major dealers, cooking gas remains in short supply, just as the situation has further worsened an already high-rising price of LPG across the country.

Checks across filling stations and retail outlets in parts of Lagos State indicated that only few of them were dispensing the product with varied prices.

In prices monitored, the commodity now sells for between N1, 100 and N1, 300 per kilogram in Lagos alone, with the situation said to be worse in other parts of the country.

At Iyana Ipaja in the Alimosho local government area of Lagos, two retail gas stations with only one of them dispensing. At Petrocam Station at Ile-Epo, Oke Odo, in Lagos also, it was observed that a 12.5kg cylinder was still being sold at N12,000, Tuesday, but the product was not available.

In Kano, the scarcity has been persistent even as a kilogramme is being sold for N1,300 in some of the stations.

Meanwhile, this is also as the commodity, last month, October, reached a staggering N1000 per kilogram as retailers or major dealers of the product accuse terminal owners of hiking charges under the guise of high foreign exchange rate in the country.

In Lagos, the price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of the commodity has also reached N12, 500 as a result, from the previous N10, 000 it was sold in the market.

President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Mr. Olatunbosun Oladapo, had also warned that the price of 12.5kg cooking gas could hit as high as N18,000 by December, 2023 if the Federal Government does not call terminal owners to order.

Mr Oladapo who informed newsmen that the government was yet to wade into the impasse between his members and the terminal owners over pricing of the commodity, said its dispute with the latter is yet to receive the attention of the Federal Government’s agency responsible, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) by way of its intervention into the matter.

According to him, the terminal owners were ‘hiding under the guise of high foreign exchange to increase price, and further increase the suffering of the masses,’ adding further that gas retailers still buy 20 metric tons of the commodity at the price of N14 million at the depot operated by the terminal owners.

“We still buy a 20 MT truck at N14m at the depots. And the price of diesel has increased that it now costs N1.7m to take gas from Lagos to the North due to the high cost of diesel. If we sell here at N1,000 per 1kg, just imagine how much it would cost in the Middle East and North.

“What we pray for is for prices to come down so that the ordinary masses can benefit from the decade of gas policy of the Federal Government that seeks to make gas accessible and affordable for the common man.

“There is a ridiculous hike in gas prices going on right now, and I am afraid that if the Federal Government does not step in to checkmate the activities of these terminal owners, price could reach as high as N18m for a 20 metric tons truck by December. This means that a 12.5kg could go as high as N18,000,” Oladapo said.