As the price of cooking gas, otherwise known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), continues to rise, many households in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, have begun to groan over the situation.
Some of the users of the cooking gas within the Port Harcourt environs told The Tide that the current situation in the country was becoming unbearable. 
Mrs Amuche Ogbonda, a resident of Rumuosi in Akpor, said the continuous increase in the price of cooking gas had forced many households to look for cheaper alternatives.
She said that other options like the use of electric cooker were being exploited, but noted that power outage was also frustrating the use of electric cooker. 
Also lamenting over the high cost of cooking gas, Mr Kennedy Onyikwu, who resides in one of the estates within Rumuokoro area of Port Harcourt, said he was so much concerned about the huge amount of money he now spends on cooking gas.
“Government is not even addressing the matter, and everyday, price keeps going higher and higher, whereas, gas is being flared continuously in this country.
“In fact, I have decided to cut down on the use of gas. In my family, we now use gas only when there is emergency cooking, otherwise, we wait until there is electricity to power our gadget”, he said.
The Tide’s findings show that the price of 12.5kg of LPG which was sold for N7,000 about a week ago, has now increased to between N8,000 and N8,200, amidst various concerns by end users, marketers and producers of the commodity.
Also, 6kg of LPG that was sold for between N2,600 and N2,650 within the same period, now sells for between N3,800 and N4,000.
Of the 1.2 million metric tonnes of the product required by Nigeria, the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited supplies about 450,000MT. This leaves a gap of 750,000MT to be filled by imports.
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) had said in September that out of the 85,264.80MT of LPG consumed in the country in August, 38,040.46MT was imported.
This means that 55.39 per cent of the LPG consumed in the country in August was imported, while 44.61 per cent was supplied locally.
The PPPRA data showed that 21,606.30MT was imported from the United States, 13,044.266 imported from Algeria, while 12,573.779MT was brought into the country from Equatorial Guinea.
With a good number of the product imported, its landing cost changes with the crisis in the foreign exchange market that has characterised the Nigerian economy in recent times.

By: Corlins Walter