By Dare Olawin
Retailers of cooking gas say the prices of the essential commodity have come down from N2,000 per kilogramme in the past three weeks, selling between N1,300 and N1,500 over the weekend.
The retailers said this is a significant improvement, as the liquefied petroleum gas is now relatively available for retailers and consumers.
Chairman of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers Association of Nigeria, Ayobami Olarinoye, confirmed the development to our correspondent.
Olarinoye said though normalcy has yet to be fully restored, there is a difference in the prices.
“The product is gradually circulating. There is an increase in supply. The price is dropping but not yet back to the former price. It is now between N1,300 and N1,600, depending on the location,” Olarinoye stated.
He stated that the LPG market is not stable, expressing optimism that things would further improve this week if the supply continued.
“The market is not yet stable, but there is considerable improvement. Hopefully, we shall attain stability in another one week if the supply is sustained,” he added.
Meanwhile, consumers said the gas shops in different neighbourhoods have also reduced the prices, compared to the previous weeks. However, Nigerians stated that they were waiting for the price to return to N900/kg or below.
The PUNCH recalls that the prices of cooking gas rose recently from an average of N1,000 per kilogramme to about N2,000/kg in some locations. This followed the recent strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria during the rift between it and the Dangote refinery.
Over two weeks after the strike was suspended, the prices of cooking gas refused to go down while the scarcity deepened.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, waded into the matter last week, promising to clamp down on marketers hoarding or exploiting consumers.
This was even as retailers complained over the differences between the price offered by the Dangote refinery and the prices the off-takers sold the commodity to the market.
It could be recalled that Alhaji Aliko Dangote once threatened to distribute cooking gas himself if the distributors did not cooperate with him to crash the price.
Last week, Olarinoye said the Dangote refinery sold LPG at N15.8m per 20,000 metric tonnes to off-takers and major distributors, who resold the same volume between N18.4m and N18.5m to retailers.
Sources at the Dangote refinery told our correspondent that “the marketers pick product from us at N715,000/MT, from N790,000/MT.”
According to them, there are 1,000 kg in one metric tonne.
“In a metric tonne, you have 1,000 kg. Marketers pick up LPG at N715/kg from the refinery. We don’t control the retail price. According to the Petroleum Industry Act and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, only the government can fix prices. We can only control what we sell at the refinery. If they sell at N2,000/kg after buying at N715/kg, there’s nothing we can do,” the sources said.
Earlier, the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers had alleged that retailers were to blame for the recent surge in cooking gas prices across the country.
NALPGAM’s National President, Oladapo Olatunbosun, was said to have attributed the price hike to gas retailers while speaking on Channels television.
However, LPG retailers disagreed, describing Olatunbosun’s comments as “unfair and misguided”
SOURCE: PUNCH NEWS PAPER
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