Operators Seek Domestication Of Cooking Gas Price

Operators in the liq
uefied Petroleum Gas (LGP) market, popularly called cooking gas, have called for the domestication of the price of the product, pointing out that as a Nigerian product, the price of the product in the country should be less than the price at the international market.
National President of the Nigeria Association of Liquefied Petroleum Marketers (NALPGAM), Mr. Basil Ogbuanu, said that a situation whereby the price of cooking gas in Nigeria is tied to the price in the international market has led to a high cost of the product in the country.
“We want a domestic price because this is a Nigeria product. It is produced in Nigeria. In Dubai, the price of 12.5kg Cylinder is equivalent of N150 because they produced it. But in Nigeria it is N3,000. The 20 metric tones that sell for N3.3 million today was just N70,000 in 1994 when we were buying from the refineries. In 1998, it was N150,000 but in 2004/2005, it went up to N1.2 million. It was in late 2007 that it increased to over N2 million. Let us have domestic pricing. Let us have Nigeria price as in Duba”, he said.
Ogbuanu said with the intervention of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited in the supply of LPG to the domestic market the product would continue to be readily available in the market.
He stated that for the past three months, the price of 20 metric tones of LPG has stabilized at N3.2 million.
He however pointed out that before the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA’s) blockade against the NLNG, the price was below N3.2 million.