Opeoluwani Akintayo
Lagos — AS the festive season approaches, a shortage in the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas, LPG known as cooking gas has resulted in price hikes, SweetcrudeReports has gathered.
According to findings, as at last month, 12.5kg of the products sold for N2900 however, the dawn of November had ushered in new prices ranging from N3600-N4000-N4500 for same quantity.
For instance, sales attendants at some of the filling stations around Low-Cost estate, Oke-Afa, Isolo over the weekend, told this newspaper, that the old price, N2600 was from the old stock which had been exhausted last month.
According to them, the retail market has witnessed low supplies of the product since the beginning of this month.
“We really don’t know why marketers chose to reduce our supply,” one of the sales attendants told SweetcrudeReports.
Branch Secretary of the Liquefied Natural Gas Retailers, LPGAR arm of PENGASSAN, Olukayode Solomon who confirmed the development described it as “monopoly of a cartel”.
He blamed the sudden increment on tank farm operators.
According to him, the low supply is as a result of a deliberate reduction in supply or rotation of supply at the LPG depots.
“Just a few weeks ago in Lagos and some neigbouring states, 12.5kg LPG was sold between N2600 and N3000 at retail outlets. However currently, it is being sold between N4000 and N4500 due to hike in price by tank farm operators,” he said.
Also Read: LPG retailers lament upsurge in cooking gas price
Due to the low supply, he said terminal owners increased the price of 20 metric tonnes of the LPG by 33 percent to N4.2million within five days without justification.
If not checked, prices will continue to increase, he added.
However, a memo by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, said the shortage was due to suspected piracy attack on an LPG vessel, Navigator Capricon which had loaded one cargo and was on its way to Lagos.
A spokesperson to the company, Sophia Horsefall said unlike just one cargo delivered to Lagos in October due to the shortage, the company has earmarked two to be delivered this month.
The Nigerian Bureau of Statistic, NBS, had in its latest report for September, said average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder cooking gas decreased by -1.21% month-on-month and -6.23% year-on-year to N1,976.11 in September 2019 from N2,000.34 in August 2019.
According to the report, states with the highest average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) were Bauchi (N2,481.88), Borno (N2,382.29) and Adamawa (N2,375.66).
States with the lowest average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) were Abuja (N1,680.00), Ebonyi (N1,700.00) and Osun (N1,711.46).
Similarly, the Bureau said average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder of the product decreased by -2.34% month-on-month and by -5.76% year-on-year to N4,124.20 in September 2019 from N4,223.08 in August 2019.
States with the highest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) were Akwa Ibom (N4,685.05), Benue (N4,600.00) and Cross River (N4,565.32).
States with the lowest average price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) were Kano (N3,600.00), Oyo (N3,661.54) and Lagos (N3,705.00).
