The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Cooking Gas

  • Marketers seek implementation of presidential directive on cooking gas

    Marketers seek implementation of presidential directive on cooking gas

    Chairman of Gas Nigerian Initiative (GNI) Opeyemi Olabanji has decried yet-to-be-implemented presidential directive on imported gas and other products

    He therefore urged the Federal Government to expedite action on prompt implementation of the directive slamming zero duties on some imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and other specified gas accessories.

    In a letter dated November 28, 2023 from the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Government approved a-100 per cent tax waiver for the LPG importation amid the rising cost of the product in the domestic market.

    Other items exempted from Value Added Tax (VAT) and duty payment are LPG cylinders, cascades, gas leak detectors, steel pipes, valves and fittings, dispensers, gas generators and trucks.

    Olabanji said the relevant agencies responsible for the implementation of the policies are allegedly lethargic with it.

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    The National President of Nigeria Association of LPG Marketers, Oladapo Olatunbosun, has also called for the implementation of the presidential directive as relayed on November, 2023.

    The GNI leader recounted on how he had late last year in another press conference at the same venue urged the Nigerian Custom Services (NCS) to fast-track the implementation of the directive.

    He added that the Spokesperson of the NCS, Abdullahi Maiwada, in his reaction had said it was not a case of the agency refusing to carry out the president’s directive, but said certain preconditions had to be met before the implementation.

    Olatunbosun, quoting copiously Maiwada, recalled how the NCS spokesman had allegedly confirmed the receipt of the letter on the directive from the Federal Minister of Finance on December 12, 2023 and that by December 15, the same year, it promptly dispatched circulars to the states’ commands to get the directive implemented.

    Maiwada had given a precondition for the implementation saying “it is not an open-ended thing; there is a caveat to the letter which says that items to enjoy this waiver must be supported with an approval letter from the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Energy. Once this document is presented, the Customs will get the job done”.

    Lamenting the daily demiurge cost of keeping the imported cylinders at the nation’s sea ports, the GNI boss said all efforts aimed at extracting the implementation of the directive by his association had been futile.

    He said: “We painstakingly took our letter to the Special Adviser on Energy at the seat of power at Aso Rock few days ago without any corresponding response, thus prompting this press conference.

    “As business oriented people, we could not but rely on the Presidential directive on the tax waiver thing. This prompted us into great and massive investments in the importation of the LPGs and other accessories.

    “As we address you right now, we incur daily demiurge on them at the port. This is not good for business and economic growth. President Bola Tinubu should kindly call to order anyone causing a delay in the implementation of his order.”

  • How FX scarcity, VAT raise cost of cooking gas – Report

    How FX scarcity, VAT raise cost of cooking gas – Report

    Indications are that the astronomical rise in the prices of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) also known as cooking gas may not be unconnected with the scarcity of forex, hike in inflation rate and other related factors, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf

    Like other essential commodities, the Liquefied Natural Gas otherwise known as cooking gas has been experiencing hike in prices lately so much so that it’s almost priced out of the reach of the common man.

    A report by the National Bureau of Statistics on retail gas prices said the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas was N6600 at a range of N1200, N1250 and N1350 per kilogramme as sold across major outlets in the country.

    The hike in the prices of the cooking gas, according to available information, may not be unconnected with a plethora of reasons chief among which is the scarcity of the Foreign Exchange (FX).

    FX scarcity VAT increase to blame

    Confirming this development, the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas, (NLNG) Ltd., also attributed the rising cost of cooking gas in the country to scarcity of forex, Federal Government’s import and Value Added Tax (VAT).

    The Managing Director and Chief Executive of NLNG, Dr Philip Mshelbila, made this disclosure while speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing African Investment Forum (AIF) in Marrakesh, Morocco, recently.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event has as its theme “Unlocking the Africa Value Chain”.

    Mshelbila, therefore urged the Federal Government to address those factors, which he said impact about 60 per cent of the product component.

    According to him, if this is addressed, it will go a long way to lower the prices of cooking gas for the benefit of Nigerians.

    “In terms of pricing, I cannot speak about the back end of the market. But you should understand that our supply makes only 40 per cent of supply for the local market.

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    ”The remaining 60 per cent has to be imported and many of the marketers are struggling to source forex.

    ”LPG is also subject to import duty and VAT and that is one area that Federal the Government has to look at if we want to lower the price of the product,” he said.

    According to Mshelbila, the NLNG took a decision two years ago, that our butane and propane will be sold to the local market as cooking gas, and we have kept to that.

    He said: “We have struggled with propane because our local market cannot take all our production.

    “We have just a few customers that can take our propane which includes Indorama a private company. But they could not take all our propane and so from time to time, we export some of the products.

    “Not because we want to export, but because our local market cannot take all of our production,”he said.

    According to the NLNG boss, Nigeria needs more investments in that area so that more development and investments will take place.

    He said there was a huge investment opportunity in propane as it could be used for transportation, power generation, and cell phone tower.

    “The product is there, but it is a question of balancing supply and demand to create opportunity for more investment inflows to come into the country.

    On takeaways from AIF, Mshelbila said: “I believe Nigeria can benefit from investments, not only from the natural gas industry, but also in the renewals and across the energy value chain.

    “NLNG is a good demonstration of FDI in Nigeria where billions of us have been investing. But there are still opportunities for small investment across the oil and gas value chain that need to be embraced.”

    According to him, there should be a system approach, we need to look at the whole system to make policies that drive investments,” he said.

    View from the streets

    Independent check by The Nation at an NNPCL outlet in Akowonjo axis of Lagos revealed that the price of a kilogramme sold N1250, indicating that the price surged by 26 percent in less than one month when it sold at N950 owing to high global crude oil and gas prices and scarcity of FX.

    This recent surge will further squeeze cash-strapped consumers, erode their purchasing ability and amplify a cost of living crisis in Africa’s most populous nation.

    “It is getting difficult daily for Nigerians, especially with the recent petrol subsidy removal and naira float,” Demola Balogun, a mechanic at Ketu, Lagos said.

    “Everyday prices keep surging and now it is cooking gas. We don’t know if the price surge will even come to an end,” he said.

    According to him, survival is now a daily struggle for millions of Nigerians and if the government fails to stabilise gas prices, a large chunk of the population will return to using firewood for cooking, reversing the progress the country has made in moving towards clean energy.

    “I don’t know when Nigerians will experience some relief. The situation has been like this for the past five years and we all just keep managing,” she said.

    She stated that relocating out of the country is the only option for her right now as things keep getting worse in the country. “I intend travelling abroad because it doesn’t look like things will improve here.”

    Nigeria’s inflation at 27.33 percent in October according to the latest NBS figures, signposts a very troubling phenomenon on the back of poor wage and biting economic crunch.

    For lower-income households with little or no cash cushion, they are making harder choices such as what to buy or not, experts say.

  • FG removes VAT on cooking gas

    The removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), also called cooking gas, produced in Nigeria, has been of major concern to members of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM).

    Therefore, it was good news to the Association and the LPG industry, when the news filtered out that the Federal Government has finally approved VAT removal on LPG and gazetted same which makes it an official pronouncement.

    The President, Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Nosa Ogieva-Okunbor, on behalf of the Governing Council, expressed his profound gratitude to the Federal Government and all relevant government agencies for listening to the association’s plea for VAT removal from LPG sourced locally.

    Ogieva-Okunbor said: “We also want to use this opportunity to thank and appreciate the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) for the timely directive stopping the inappropriate and indiscriminate installation of skid plants in petrol stations. The directive that all skid plants in filling stations be dismantled and removed was apt, considering the huge danger and risk to the public in the operations of LPG Skid plants in filling stations. We, however, appeal for a proper and thorough implementation of the directive in all states of the federation.

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    “The association still pleads with the government to create a more conducive and enabling environment for investors in the industry particularly now that deepening the consumption of LPG in the country has become a major interest of the government and marketers are geared towards ensuring the success of the programme by complementing the efforts of the government.

    “We, therefore, appeal for a reduction on import duty on LPG equipment and accessories.

    ‘The increased awareness of LPG usage has seen consumption in Nigeria growing from 50,000 metric tonnes (MT) in 2007 to over 600,000MT in 2018 with more indigenous investments in LPG bottling plants. This, thus, will ensure that majority of Nigerians enjoy the convenience of the proximity of LPG refill or exchange points.

    “We implore the federal and state governments to initiate a well-funded social welfare programme to expand usage of LPG.”

  • Marketers urge govt to remove VAT on cooking gas

    The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) has urged the Federal Government to remove Value Added Tax (VAT) on locally produced Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) also called cooking gas.

    Its President, Nosa Ogieva-Okunbor, told reporters in Lagos that VAT payment on locally processed LPG makes it expensive and unattractive to imported LPG, which does not attract VAT payment.

    He noted that payment of VAT on locally processed LPG, which the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited supplies, among other issues, make cooking gas in Nigeria to be expensive, which ought not to be because we have gas resource in abundance.

    The price of 12.5 kg cylinder of cooking is between N4,200 and N4,300 as against N 3,600 in April. Ogieva-Okunbor said apart from VAT problem, some stakeholders in Nigeria’s LPG supply value chain have taken a strangle hold on the business, and are determining what the price of the commodity will be.

    He said it has become imperative to develop effective policies to encourage investors to come into the LPG sector to boost market penetration and the country’s economy while protecting the environment.

    He said VAT removal from the gas supplied to marketers by the NLNG will attract more investors and reduce importation of gas into the country, which is VAT free. He also called for the reduction of import duty on LPG equipment to encourage more investors and deepen LPG consumption in the country.

    According to him, it is not complimentary that Nigeria remained one of the countries with the lowest LPG consumption despite the enormous natural gas reserves in the country. ”Our position is that the government has to provide the enabling environment for more people to come in. We have to remove VAT on the LPG and reduce import duties on the equipment. When this is done, more investors will come into the market and that will help the country a great deal,” he said.

    Ogieva-Okunbor, urged the government to beam its searchlight on marketers responsible for arbitrary increase in the price of cooking gas for personal gain, noting that the price of gas had jumped by 15 per cent in less than two weeks.

    According to him, the price of 20 metric tonnes of the LPG, which was N4 million three weeks ago, increased to N4.6 million last week. He decried price instability in the domestic LPG market, which he said, was caused by a cabal delaying berthing of the LPG bearing vessels at the terminals to cause artificial scarcity.

    “We have been contending with the issue of price instability because a couple of people have hijacked the government’s good gesture of installing the domestic scheme. Under the scheme, gas will be readily available in the major terminals in Lagos. When there are no supply shortages, there will be a level playing ground in terms of competition and pricing.

    “The Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is tasked with the responsibility of managing the berthing of the LPG vessels at the terminals. But some stakeholders in the LPG sector  are causing a near monopoly in the LPG market as only a private terminal is able to receive imported gas product, while NLNG gas cannot find a place to berth,” the NALPGAM chief said.

    He noted that the effort of the government through the Minister of State, Petroleum Resource, Dr. Emmanuel IbeKachikwu, to make cooking gas available to households was being scuttled by a few individuals.

    He, however, appealed to the government to dredge the Southern Escravos of Warri port to enable bigger vessels carrying gas berth to reduce concentration at Lagos ports.He explained that the completion of the Escravos dredging would make the seaport commercially viable for gas marketers and other seaport operations.

  • Kerosene explosions: Nigerians advised to go for cooking gas

    Kerosene explosions: Nigerians advised to go for cooking gas

    To reduce the prevalence of kerosene explosions across the country and remove the pressure causing scarcity and sharp practices in the distribution of the product; Nigerians have been advised to embrace the use of the cooking gas.

    Chief Executive Officer of Matrix Energy Limited, Abdukabir Adisa Aliu, who gave the advice during a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), in Warri, also noted that the rest of the world had left Nigeria behind in the race to cleaner energy.

    Aliu, who informed the committee that the difficulty in getting adequate supply of kerosene for its teeming consumers across the country was primarily as a result of the fact that it is an export product, despite the country being and oil producer, noted that it is time for Nigeria to diversify from kerosene to gas for domestic uses.

    The 5-man House Committee, led by Honourable Joseph Akinlaja, said it was out to find out the causes of high cost and scarcity of kerosene in the country, as well as get to know why cases of kerosene explosion had become common across the country.

    However, explaining the character of the kerosene market to the legislators, Aliu said Nigeria needs to adopt the liquefied natural gas (LPG), which he said is cheaper and safer, for domestic use, adding that this would take the pressure off kerosene and make the quantity refined by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) adequate for other uses.

    “The main reason why kerosene price cannot be determined, why we can’t have a fixed price except there’s subsidy, is that for a very long time now the country has depended on importation of kerosene and we all know that the pricing of kerosene is determined under Jet J1, which is the same thing for aviation fuel, any time the crude oil price goes up.

    “A country like Nigeria should rely on importation of kerosene. A country like Nigeria, with a population of minimum 120 million, should not be using kerosene. There are maybe about 3 or 4 countries in the entire world that still rely on kerosene; I know of Nigeria, I know of India, I can’t remember any other country that uses kerosene as means of cooking.

    “We are part of the people that have been advocating for gas. We have gas everywhere; the entire of Delta state, Edo state have more of gas than oil reserve. Most of the marginal fields in all these locations are producing gas and many wells here are being cut because they are producing propane, which is what we use in cooking anywhere in the world.

    “So for us, the alternative to bring down the reliability on kerosene is for the entire country to diversify to the use of gas, which is what led us to building another facility, which we call Matrix Gas.

    “Nigeria, today, is exporting propane and peptane; Bonny LNG and NGL project under Mobil are doing that, exporting Nigerian gas. Nigeria produces the highest volume of gas in Africa; it’s after Nigeria that you’ll be talking of Gabon. So for us, the less people use kerosene, there’ll be less pressure on the product and whatever quantity of kerosene the NNPC produces, government can decide to do whatever they want to do with it,” he said.

    The House committee, speaking to journalists after the meeting and the inspection of the company’s facilities, said it would take recommendations offered by the company to the lower chambers for consideration.

  • Nigeria to extend gas pipeline to Côte d’ Ivoire

    Nigeria to extend gas pipeline to Côte d’ Ivoire

    The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday said the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) would be extended from Ghana to Cote d’ Ivoire as part of the Federal Government West African energy integration policy.
    The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, made this disclosure on  while receiving a delegation from Cote d’Ivoire at the NNPC Towers in Abuja.
    Represented by the Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, Engr. Saidu Mohammed, the GMD stated that the extension of WAGP to Cote d’Ivoire would facilitate easy transmission of gas within the West African sub-region.
    He noted that the visit would afford the NNPC and Cote d’Ivoire the opportunity to open a new vista for further bilateral discussion which would lead to the growth and development of the oil and gas sector.
    The GMD said Nigeria and indeed the NNPC has being into the business of oil and gas exploration and production for over fifty years, stressing that the interface would enable the NNPC to share its vast experiences in the sector with the delegation.
    The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the corporation, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu that disclosed this in a statement quoted Baru as saying that : “Petroleum exploration and production dates back to over fifty years in Nigeria and a lot of experiences in technology and personnel management have been acquired. We are ready to share our experiences with you so as to help you to avoid the mistakes we made in the past.”
    He expressed the readiness of the NNPC to develop the capacity of the delegation, adding that the NNPC was aware of the long history of refining in Cote d’ Ivoire.  
    Earlier, leader of the Ivoirian delegation and Deputy Director, Production, of Ministry of Petroleum, Cote d’ Ivoire, Mr. Patrick Marshal, said the visit was to learn from Nigeria some of its best practices in personnel management, exploration and production in the oil and gas industry.
    Highpoint of the visit was a technical session on the mode of operations of the NNPC in the petroleum sector.
  • NLNG boosts supply of cooking gas for market stability

    NLNG boosts supply of cooking gas for market stability

    The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) has increased the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), commonly called cooking gas, to ensure market stability and reduce the commodity’s price.

    NLNG General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, said the commodity’s availibility   would bring down price and also enhance energy security. “Energy is important to Nigerians and the economy. Bringing stability to the product Nigerians use is important to us as a company. We are passionate about what concerns Nigerians,” he noted.

    Eresia-Eke noted that the price of the product has started coming down and assured that with more supplies the price will further drop. A survey by The Nation also confirmed that the price has gone down by N500 and more, per a 12.5 kg, depending on the area of purchase. In some LPG filling plants in Ikeja, a 12.5kg cylinder sells for N4,500 or less as against N5,000. In some NNPC retail outlets, however, a 12.5kg cylinder still goes for N4,800.

    Nevertheless, Eresia-Eke said NLNG has chartered a vessel dedicated to bringing the product from its Bonny Island plant in Rivers State to terminals in Lagos until it floods the market with the product.

    The chartered vessel, Gaz Providence, has the capacity of 13,126.6 metric tons, which equals 1,000,040 of 12.5kg cooking gas cylinders. “The vessels discharged in January and could have done more if not for delays at the terminals in Lagos,” the NLNG spokesman said.

    He continued: “The delays to vessel discharges at the receiving facilities (terminals) in Apapa, Lagos, is as a result of its multi-use nature with berthing priority accorded to vessels discharging other oil products such as petrol, kerosene and diesel.

    “For instance, NLNG’s dedicated LPG vessel was unable to discharge LPG at Apapa port between December 29, 2016 and second weekend in January 2017 due to jetty unavailability. This was what resulted in the temporary product shortages in the market and consequent high price.

    “We are, however, glad that the media took the opportunity of the scarcity period to stress the need for the provision of enabling facilities such as landing jetties in other parts of the country like Port Harcourt and Calabar, among others, to support NLNG’s commitment to supply of LPG to domestic market.”

    Eresia-Eke noted that on their part as a company, they are also working with relevant stakeholders to eliminate bottlenecks and improve operational efficiencies to ensure product availability and help correct market price distortions.

    He stressed that while NLNG was committed to the supply of LPG, it was instructive to note that the issue of pricing was based on an international price index plus 50 per cent of the shipping cost of delivering the product to receiving facilities in Apapa, Lagos. That price was invoiced in naira at the prevailing official interbank exchange rates.

    “The reality is that LPG is produced and consumed locally, but like crude oil, it is an internationally traded commodity with an international price benchmark that is open to global demand and supply pressures.

    “NLNG has, however, over the years, made efforts to soften the impact of price variations by subsidising the cost of transporting about 40 per cent of total domestic market share, which it supplies from its production facility on Bonny Island and increased supply from 250,000mt to 350,000mt,” he added.

  • Furore over cooking gas, kerosene scarcity

    Furore over cooking gas, kerosene scarcity

    The prices of cooking gas, otherwise known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK) or kerosene, have gone up, no thanks to scarcity of the products. Though the scarcity and its attendant hike in prices have been blamed on disruption in the supply and distribution chains, AKINOLA AJIBADE writes on the agonies of Nigerians and efforts to remedy the situation.

    Since the New Year, Mrs. Rebecca Alesinloye, a domestic user of cooking gas, otherwise known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and kerosene, has been struggling to come to terms with the sudden hike in the prices of these cooking fuels. “I filled my gas cylinder with N3, 500 in December. By first the week of January, the price has surprisingly gone up to as high as N4,500,” Alesinloye fumed. She added that the skyrocketing prices of the products have brought untold financial and physiological pressure on her household.
    Narrating her ordeal further, an obviously embittered Mrs Alesinloye, a resident of Surulere, Lagos, told The Nation that when she first visited a gas plant located inside a filling station around her neighbourhood, she had hoped that the price of gas would be cheaper since the festive season was almost over. “But to my disappointment, the price was as high as N5,000,” she lamented. She said she had no choice but to go back to the first gas plant to refill her cylinder. She described the price hike as “unfortunate” considering the economic hardship in the country.
    As far as Mrs Alesinloye was concerned, she and other domestic gas users are victims of exploitation by shylock gas sellers. According to her, sellers usually exploit users by increasing the price of the product during festive periods. She accused marketers of being unfair to users, lamenting that this development has compounded the woes of Nigerians battling all odds to survive the economic downturn caused by recession.
    She, therefore, appealed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), marketers under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Nigerian Liquefied and Natural Gas (NLNG) and other relevant operators to check what she described as “the excesses of the sellers of the two products’.’
    Mrs Alesinloye is not alone in her agony over the increase in the price of gas and kerosene.
    Mrs. Jennifer Eluko, another consumer, is also furious. She lamented that the price of cooking gas rose since last December in most parts of Lagos. A resident of Abule-Egba, a suburb of Lagos, Ekuko said she usually refills her two gas cylinders ahead of the festive period.
    According to her, this was to get round the challenge of artificial scarcity of the product that forces her and other consumers to pay extra. “I usually fill two cylinders ahead of the festive period because I know that sellers would sometimes create artificial scarcity and inflate the price,” Mrs Eluko said.
    Another housewife Mrs. Oluyemi Alimi lamented that the sudden rise in the price of kerosene and cooking gas has added to her financial woes. Alimi, who is in her 50s, said since most Nigerians use LPG and kerosene as cooking fuels, they have no choice but to contend with the increase in the prices of the two products.
    Even LPG retailers are complaining. For instance, the Chairman, Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers (LPGAR), Mr. Chika Michael Umudu, said the scarcity of gas has worsened the problems of low income earners. He said many people have abandoned their cylinders and opted for other sources, such as firewood and saw dust.
    The scarcity of the two household cooking fuels has seen their prices hitting the roof. For instance, the price of refilling a 12.5-kilogramme gas cylinder increased by 30 per cent from N3, 000 to N4,500, while that of kerosene increased from N100 per litre to N400 per litre.

    NLNG reacts
    The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) said the high cost LPG was caused by shipping cost, delay of cargo discharges at receiving terminals in Lagos and because the commodity’s price is based on international price index.
    Its General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, said Nigeria LNG’s domestic LPG price is based on an international price index plus 50 per cent of the shipping cost of delivering the product to receiving facilities in Apapa-Lagos. That price is invoiced in naira at the prevailing official interbank exchange rates.
    He said the reality of this is that though LPG is produced and consumed locally, the product, like crude oil is an internationally traded commodity with an international price benchmark, open to global demand and supply pressures. NLNG, however, softens the impact of price variations by continuing to subsidise the cost of transporting about 40 per cent of total domestic market share supplied from Bonny Island, he added.
    “Recent delays to vessel discharges at the receiving facilities in Apapa, Lagos, which are multi-use terminals with berthing priority accorded to vessels discharging other oil products such as petrol, kerosene and diesel, have also led to a temporary supply disruption over the last two-three weeks.
    “ For instance, NLNG’s dedicated LPG vessel has been unable to discharge LPG at the Apapa port since December 29, 2016 due to jetty unavailability, resulting in temporary product shortages in the market.
    “Additionally, NLNG continues to work with stakeholders, including offtakers and terminal operators, to eliminate bottlenecks and improve operational efficiencies to ensure product availability and help correct market price distortions. We are also engaged with other public and private stakeholders along the domestic market value chain to stimulate price stability and growth.
    “NLNG remains fully committed to the goals of ensuring LPG supply availability, reliability and affordability, which are key for the development and growth of the domestic LPG market. It is in this regard that the NLNG Board recently approved an increase in the LPG dedicated for supply into the domestic market from 250,000 metric tons to 350,000 metric tons annually,” Eresia-Eke said.
    Operators react
    Sadly, the scarcity may linger for a long time, as firms selling the products at various ends of the market are said to have ran out of stock.
    The Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), Mr. Bassey Essien, attributed the price increase to shortage. He noted that the situation would improve when more vessels bring the product from NLNG headquarters in Bonny, Rivers State to Lagos.
    He explained that a vessel carrying LPG comes to Lagos from Bonny every two weeks, and that the time lag between each delivery of the product and the others often result in short-supply of the product in the market.
    For Comrade Umudu, the scarcity was caused by some cabals who hijacked the operations of the sub-sector. According to him, the cabals determine its supply and price.
    He also told The Nation that LPGAR, which is an arm of the National Union of Petroleum Employees and Natural Gas (NUPENG), has continued to decry the instability in the supply of gas across the country caused by the cabal. He traced the crisis in the sub-sector to last July when the cabals hijacked the sub-sector.

    IPMAN blames forex
    scarcity, partial deregulation
    IPMAN blamed the scarcity of kerosene across the country on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) foreign exchange (forex) policy, and the partial deregulation of the sale of the product.
    Its Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Dankigari, said many marketers were unable to import kerosene because of forex scarcity. “Besides, kerosene is not fully deregulated; it is not like automotive gas oil (AGO) or diesel. Kerosene and petrol are not fully deregulated,” he added.

    NNPC’s speaks
    The NNPC said kerosene scarcity exists because it is the sole importing the product into the country. “The Corporation has been importing kerosene, supplementing this with local production. It operates in the downstream like other players,” its spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu, said.
    He pointed out that if other marketers that have been authorised to bring in kerosene had lived up to expectation, there would not have been any scarcity of the product. Ughamadu said it was not the responsibility of the NNPC to find out why marketers are not importing the product since it is not the sole regulator of the industry.
    “NNPC is a player in the downstream. We also have our retail outlets for the generic purpose of the nation. We sell to consumers and we have a conglomerate of players. We have IPMAN and others. But the question is: Are they bringing in products like NNPC? If they have all been bringing in products, there wouldn’t have been this kind of problem because the NNPC is also set up as a commercial entity,” Ughamadu said.

    Environmental hazards loom
    Experts have warned that if the scarcity of cooking gas and kerosene continues, there could be environmental hazards in the country.
    An environmentalist, Mr. Ako Amadi, noted that because of the scarcity of gas and kerosene and the attendant price hike, many people have resorted to the use of firewood diregarding its effects on the environment.
    “There would be deforestation, which simply means cutting down of trees in the forest. When this happens, people would be exposed to ecological problems such as depletion of the ozone layers,” Amadi warned
    The environmentalist, who is also a consultant to the Canadian government on environment, warned that further depletion of the ozone layer and its attendant emission of poisonous materials is hazardous to human health.

    Local refineries to the rescue
    The Federal Government said it is making efforts to address the scarcity. The NNPC, in a statement, said the three refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri have resumed production of diesel and kerosene.
    The state-run oil firm said the refining of diesel and kerosene is expected to balance the disequilibrium in demand and supply of the products in order to address the perennial scarcity of the products being experienced in recent times in parts of the country.
    The Managing Director, Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC), Solomon Ladenegan, said the plant had been doing well since the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) was revved up on January 7.
    Despite the assurances, close industry watchers have continued to heap the blame for the crisis in that segment of the oil and gas industry on governments. To them, successive administrations have failed to put the operations of that sector on the path of efficient service delivery.
    Their consensus is that until this is done, the perennial scarcity of the products will continue.
    cause the refinery has started working”, Yahaya stated.

  • Cooking gas shortage hits FCT

    Cooking gas shortage hits FCT

    Consumers of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) otherwise known as coking gas in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday grappled with shortage of the product.

    The situation led to an upward surge in the price of the product, selling for N4,200 per 12.5KG at the Nipco  Station in Jabi.

    Another Nipco station in Kubwa, which complained of low stock, sold the same quantity for N4,300.

    The scenario resulted in so many customers lining up their cylinders at gas stations across the city from dawn till the time of filing this report yesterday.

    Some private gas retailers took advantage of the scarcity to increase the price to N6,000, while some sold the product for N5,000.

    One of the customers, who identified himself simply as Carls, told The Nation that “I came to this Nipco Jabi gas station at 11.30 am and my cylinder was filled at 2 pm.”

    Another female customer, who refused to disclose her identity, said: “I was asked to pay N6,000 at Veneegas behind Jabi Upstairs. I simply left there for this Nipco gas station in Jabi.”

    The product recorded rise in price following the high foreign exchange rate and increase in the price of petroleum products such as kerosene.

  • NLNG explains cooking gas price hike

    The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) has stated that the high cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), commonly called cooking, was caused by shipping cost, delay of cargo discharges at receiving terminals in Lagos and the fact that its price is based on international price index.

    Its General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke in a statement, stated that the company noticed recent media reports on LPG price increases in the domestic market and it has become imperative to explain some of the causes of the price increase.

    He said Nigeria LNG’s domestic LPG price is based on an international price index plus 50 per cent of the shipping cost of delivering the product to receiving facilities in Apapa-Lagos.  That price is invoiced in naira at the prevailing official interbank exchange rates, contrary to erroneous assertions made in parts of the media.

    The reality of this is that although LPG is produced and consumed locally, the product, like crude oil, is an internationally traded commodity with an international price benchmark, open to global demand and supply pressures.