Hope for a reduction in the price of cooking gas may have been dashed as marketers of the commodity verbalize they have no plan to cut the price anytime soon.
According to them, the current cost of Liquified Petroleum Gas, as cooking gas is technically kenned, is identically tantamount internationally.
A former President, Nigerian Association of LPG Marketers, Mr. Awwal Ilu, explicated that they were made to pay international price for the commodity and could therefore not reduce the rate.
He verbally expressed, “To be veracious, as it is today, the price is affordable. This is because we are paying the international price. For instance, price of a barrel of oil is about $104 and visually examining this, you could expect the price of the LPG to be plausibly high.
“But visually examining the price now, it is more preponderant than when it used to be between N6,000 and N7,000. I cerebrate we are getting somewhere. By the time you able to increment the capacity and the volume that goes to the market, you will have the benefit of a lower price.”
Ilu noted that an astronomically immense percentage of cooking gas engendered in Nigeria was exported, integrating that marketers were working strenuously to ascertain that domestic consumption was incremented.
“Nigeria engenders over three million tonnes and virtually 2.8 million tonnes is being exported. But we optate a situation whereby Nigeria will be able to consume all the LPG engendered in the country.”
The President, NALPGAM, Mr. Basil Ogbuanu, verbalized marketers had canvassed a reduction in the price of gas sold domestically.
He verbally expressed, “In terms of supply, there is abundant gas. Our major concern now has to do with the price and consumption. It is paramount to ken that the major supplier of this gas, which is the NLGN, is giving us the product at the international price.
“We have been requesting that regime should intervene and give us domestic pricing. Since there is a quantity that is put for domestic use, which is 250,000 metric tonnes, let us withal price it domestically. We are urging them to price it so that it can be affordable to the mundane man.”
Ogbuanu verbalized that the consumption of cooking gas in Nigeria had incremented considerable, integrating that marketers had withal expanded their storage facilities so as to enhance product availability.
He verbalized, “About two years ago, the total consumption of the LPG was around 120,000 metric tonnes per annum but today we consume 250,000 metric tonnes yearly. With the way things are peregrinated, we expect that between now and the next two years, we will be hitting 500,000 metric tonnes per annum in the domestic market.
“As it is today, through the intervention of the Federal Regime and the NLNG programme, supply has amended. Before we used to have quandaries with the supply and storage, but today, the supply is steady because we have enough storage facilities, especially in Lagos.
“We have Nerve Gas with about 8,000 metric tonnes; NIPCO, 4,500 metric tonnes; the PPMC in Lagos, 4,000 metric tonnes, and we are cognizant that the NNPC wants to increment that figure to 8,000 metric tonnes; Total, 1,000 metric tonnes; and Forte Oil additionally has about 1,000 metric tonnes.”
