The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, has expressed concern about the scarcity of liquefied petroleum gas, popularly known as cooking gas, promising to clamp down on marketers hoarding or exploiting consumers.
This follows complaints by retailers over the differences between the price offered by the Dangote refinery and the prices the off-takers sold the commodity to the market.
Aliko Dangote once threatened to distribute cooking gas himself if the distributors did not cooperate with him to crash the price.
In an interview with newsmen on Monday, the Chairman of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Ayobami Olarinoye, said the Dangote refinery sold LPG at N15.8m per 20,000 metric tonnes to off-takers and major distributors, who resold the same volume between N18.4m and N18.5m to retailers.
Sources at the Dangote refinery told our correspondent that “the marketers pick product from us at N715,000/MT, from N790,000/MT.”
According to them, there are 1,000 kg in one metric tonne.
“In a metric tonne, you have 1,000 kg. Marketers pick up LPG at N715/kg from the refinery.
We don’t control the retail price. According to PIA and NMDPRA, only the government can fix prices. We can only control what we sell at the refinery. If they sell at N2,000/kg after buying at N715/kg, there’s nothing we can do,” the sources said.
The prices of cooking gas rose recently from an average of N1,000 per kilogramme to about N2,000/kg in some locations. This followed the recent strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria during the rift between it and the Dangote refinery.
Almost two weeks after the strike was suspended, the prices of cooking gas refused to go down while the scarcity deepened.
Expressing concern over the development in a statement signed by his spokesman, Louis Ibah, the gas minister appealed for calm and understanding from Nigerians, assuring them that the situation was temporary and would normalise by next week.
According to him, the sharp increase in price was caused by two main factors: the industrial action by PENGASSAN at the Dangote refinery and the ongoing maintenance activities at the Nigeria LNG Train 4 facility.
The minister explained that the strike by PENGASSAN at the Dangote refinery temporarily halted LPG loading, while the maintenance work at NLNG reduced the volume of gas available in the domestic market.
He said these disruptions led to a shortfall in supply and a consequent rise in prices due to a demand–supply imbalance.
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