Gas producers, distributors trade words as price of cooking gas hits N7,000

The price of cooking gas for a 12.5kg cylinder hits N7,000. Management of the NLNG had stated that marketers face a problem of shortage of facilities to receive the Nigeria LNG Limited’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas supply.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association had earlier claimed that the rising cost of cooking gas in Nigeria is caused by lack of adequate supply.

The marketers had said that foreign investors misjudged demand in the Nigerian market, prompting them to import the product.

The marketers had urged the government to permit NLNG to provide more gas distribution to consumers so as to reduce the cost of cooking gas in the country.

The marketers had told the government to remove cooking gas from commodities listed for payment of Value Added Tax (VAT).

However, the Marketing Manager of NLNG, Austin Ogbogbo, had countered the claims of the marketers under the umbrella of IPMAN. He disclosed that the marketers do not have sufficient infrastructure to receive the quantity of gas supplied by the company for the Nigerian market.

Austin Ogbogbo highlighted: “NLNG has grown its capacity from 50,000 metric tonnes per annum to 450,000 metric tonnes per annum of LPG in the past 14 years.

“Nigeria needs 1.2 million metric tonnes per annum, but even the 450,000 we produce cannot be absorbed by the market’s current infrastructure.

“We only operate in the midstream sub sector of the industry, so we are only responsible for supplying to the market.

“The downstream players are responsible for the distribution to the end users, and also building the infrastructure to ensure it is done efficiently. It is out of our scope.”

Ogbogbo maintained that if distributors can accept more LPG, NLNG will increase its capacity for more supply.