By Abimbola Ogunnaike
In a bid to increase Liquefied Petroleum Gas, popularly called cooking gas volume domestically and to crash the price of the commodity, the Federal Government on Thursday, 22 February, 2024 announced the banning of the exportation of the product.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, made this disclosure while speaking on the sidelines of the internal stakeholders’ workshop in Abuja on Thursday.
According to Ekpo, the LPG producers in Nigeria and key stakeholders in the industry had been told to stop exporting the commodity out of Nigeria, following the recent jump in the cost of cooking gas.
Findings showed that the cost of refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and some other states had climbed to about N18,000. It was specifically N17,500 in Abuja on Thursday, a product that sold for less than N9,000 in November last year.
LPG dealers under the aegis of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers had predicted mid-last year that a 12.5kg cylinder would cost N18,000 going by the incessant hikes in its cost.
To tackle this, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, constituted a committee in November 2023, headed by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed.
But up till today (Thursday), the minister said the cost of the commodity continues on upward trend, as many LPG users are gradually shifting to the use of charcoal.
The minister stated that the Federal Government had asked LPG producers to stop exporting the commodity.
Ekpo named some international oil companies including Mobil, Shell, and Chevron as producers, stressing that the government was interfacing with them to crash cooking gas prices.
In November 2023, a kilogramme of cooking gas was about N700, but the product is now sold at about N1,400/kg. Some operators stated that the cost would increase further if the government failed to intervene.
With the issue of gas, you have seen the demonstration of the Federal Government by withdrawing all taxes and levies from the importation of gas-related equipment. It is a big incentive.
“On the issue of LPG (cooking gas), we are interacting with the critical sectors to ensure that there is no exportation of LPG. All LPG produced within the country will have to be domesticated. And when this is done, the volume will increase and, of course, the price will automatically crash.
“I’m in contact with the regulator, NMDPRA, we have meetings almost daily with the producers of the gas like Mobil, Chevron and Shell. So there is that hope that things will turn around.
“And that is also why we are having this engagement to know exactly what the problems are so that we can address them once and for all,” Ekpo said.
