Why 12.5kg Cooking Gas Price May Jump To N18,000 By December- NALPGM President

By Babatunde Solanke

The President of  the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGM), Olatunbosun Oladapo, have warned that the price of 12.5kg cooking gas may hit N18,000 by December if the Federal Government does not restrict the activities of the terminal owners.

Oladapo, who stated this during an interview with The Punch Online said that the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas also known as cooking gas has “gone astronomically high at terminals as a result of a sudden increment from between N9-N10m per 20 metric tons to N14m per 20 metric tons.

“There is a ridiculous hike in gas prices going on right now, and I am afraid that if the Federal Government does not step in to checkmate the activities of these terminal owners, price could reach as high as N18m per metric tons by December. This means that a 12.5kg could go as high as N18,000.”

Oladapo said terminal owners were “hiding under the guise of high foreign exchange to increase price to further increase the suffering of the masses.”

 “Now, the ordinary man would not be able to buy gas. How many minimum wage earners can afford gas now? Everyone is turning to firewood and charcoal. The surprising thing was that they visited President Tinubu last week, and promised to work together with his administration to make life better. Now they have come back and started doing something else. Where are all the palliatives and busses they promised to donate? We have not seen anything.”

Recall that the medium reported an intended hike in cooking gas prices in August. Prices had since shot up, with 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas going as high as high as N10,000.

Although gas terminal owners did not have a visible association, spokespersons for NavGas, Friday Agwu, and Nipco Plc’s Askay Kumar, blamed the hike on forex and the international market.

“No one is selling at N1,200/kg. I have not heard such high price yet,” Kumar told the medium  via a telephone conversation on Sunday. He however declined to respond when asked how much the landing cost was.

Friday blamed the price on forex and raise in price of crude oil at the international market.

“Flat price increase and forex challenges, and LPG responding to crude price increase at the international market,” he said via a whatssap message to the medium.

Source: The Punch Online