The Federal Government has directed Liquified Petroleum Gas, LPG also called cooking gas, producers to stop exporting the commodity.
The Government is also talking to some international oil companies including Mobil, Shell, and Chevron who are known producers to help in crashing cooking gas prices.
Government has therefore placed ban on the exportation of the product to increase domestic production a step towards addressing price increase.
It stated on Thursday that LPG producers in Nigeria and key stakeholders in the industry had been told to stop exporting the commodity out of Nigeria, following the recent jump in the cost of cooking gas.
This is as cost of refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas had climbed to about N18,000 in most Nigerian cities as against less than N9,000, towards end of last year.
The LPG dealers under the aegis of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers had predicted mid-last year that a 12.5kg cylinder would cost N18,000 going by the incessant hikes in its cost.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, constituted a Committee in November 2023, headed by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, but despite the measure the cost of the commodity had continued to rise.
Reports showed that in November 2023, a kilogramme of cooking gas was about N700, but the product is now sold at about N1,400/kg. Some operators stated that the cost would increase further if the government failed to intervene.
Ekpo said, “With the issue of gas, you have seen the demonstration of the Federal Government by withdrawing all taxes and levies from the importation of gas-related equipment. It is a big incentive.
“On the issue of LPG (cooking gas), we are interacting with the critical sectors to ensure that there is no exportation of LPG. All LPG produced within the country will have to be domesticated. And when this is done, the volume will increase and, of course, the price will automatically crash.
“I’m in contact with the regulator, NMDPRA, we have meetings almost daily with the producers of the gas like Mobil, Chevron and Shell. So there is that hope that things will turn around.
“And that is also why we are having this engagement to know exactly what the problems are so that we can address them once and for all.”
