*Demand surges *Nigerians to pay more in 2021
OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — As Nigerians brace up for the Christmas and New Year celebrations, prices of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas, LPG, popularly known as cooking gas, has increased by 20 percent in the past month.
According to findings, terminal operators and importers have increased the price of 20 metric tonnes of LPG to N5.3 million from an average of N4.4 million a month ago.
Some gas plants in Lagos visited by our correspondent refilled a 12.5kg cylinder of LPG for N4,000 on Wednesday, up from N3,200 in November.
The product sold for N3,500 on Monday.
Some of the retail shops put the price for the 12.5kg cylinder at between N4,000 and N4,500 on Wednesday.
Some marketers, who spoke with SweetcrudeReports, hinted that the price of product had increased more especially in the last quarter of the year, adding that they had to “rely on importation because local supply was not enough to cater for high demands”.
Despite Nigeria holding the largest natural gas reserves in Africa and the ninth largest in the world, the country still relies on imports to meet increasing demand for the product.
Towards boosting gas supply and usage across the country, the Muhammadu Buhari administration this year had ramped up advocacy for gas as against fossil fuel, later introducing the National Gas Expansion Programme, NGEP, which was launched in November.
Depreciation of the naira against the dollar and increased global demand for gas had also pushed up the cost of importing the product into the country.
SweetcrudeReports gathered from LPG in Nigeria, an advocacy organisation championing the use of LPG in the country, that terminal operators sold 20 tonnes of LPG at between N5.2 million and N5.3 million on Wednesday, up from N4.9 to N5 million early December and N4.25 million to N4.45 million on November 20.
As the festive period draws even closer, SweetcrudeReports gathered Nigerians would have to pay more for the product next year.
Marketers, who spoke with our correspondent, raised concerns that the naira is likely to depreciate further against the dollar as 2021 approaches, and this would impact on prices of the LPG.
“Gas consumers should expect further increase in prices. Demand is growing by the day and local supply isn’t enough. We would have to import more, and you know prices increase with demand,” a source told SweetcrudeReports, adding that even local suppliers of the product are planning on hiking prices.
