The price of cooking gas remains high despite the suspension of the strike action by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria last week, leaving residents of Lagos, Ogun and other states in the South-West in utter despair.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers has assured Nigerians that the ongoing scarcity of cooking gas, which led to price hikes across major cities, would ease within days as supply gradually resumes.
Nigerians, especially women in the South West, lamented that they started buying gas at prices between N1,300 and N1,600 per kg since last week when PENGASSAN shut down major gas facilities to protest the sack of 800 workers by the Dangote refinery.
“I bought gas at N1,600, and it is still like that until this weekend,” Oluwakemi Mobolaji, a resident of Ota, Ogun State, told one of our correspondents.
A native of Ibadan, Oyo State, Abefe Taiwo, said she refilled cooking gas at N1,300 at a major gas station in Challenge, Ibadan.
“I don’t know when the price of gas will go down. The PENGASSAN strike has been suspended. Why is gas still expensive?” Adeola, a Lagosian, said on Sunday.
It was observed that a number of gas stations have run out of supply since last week.
There were queues in the few gas stations selling LPG as of Sunday.
Speaking with The PUNCH on Sunday, the National President of the National Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Olatunbosun Oladapo, explained that the shortage was largely limited to the South-West and was caused by recent maintenance works at the Dangote facility, compounded by a strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.
“The scarcity is not nationwide. Gas is available in the South-South and East, but the South-West experienced shortages due to recent disruptions. Maintenance was carried out at Dangote, and immediately after that, PENGASSAN embarked on strike, which delayed vessels carrying gas from NLNG. Now that terminals have resumed trucking, the backlog will take two to three days to clear,” Oladapo said.
He disclosed that Dangote had started issuing pro forma invoices to off-takers and resumed trucking out products, a move expected to stabilise supply in the coming days.
However, an oil and gas expert, Olajire Jeremiah, said the vacuum created during the three-week pause in Dangote’s sales triggered panic buying and opened the door for sharp price hikes.
“Dangote only resumed selling on Wednesday, after being out of the market for about three weeks. Importers also stayed away, claiming it was difficult to compete with Dangote’s lower pricing. This created a supply vacuum. Scarcity always comes with a price hike, and retailers took advantage,” the Chief Executive Officer of Petroleumprice.ng
As of Wednesday, Dangote was selling LPG at N810 per kilogram, while other depots, including Ardova and Nipco, priced the product at N910–N920 per kg, a margin of N100 per kg.
In Abuja, retail outlets sold cooking gas for as high as N1,400 per kg. A retailer in Kuje confirmed switching suppliers after long delays at their primary source. “Gas is now both expensive and scarce. We’ve had to buy from new suppliers since our usual depot could not meet demand,” the retailer lamented.
Marketers maintain that the resumption of sales by Dangote and continued trucking from depots would normalise supply across the country in the next one to two weeks, urging consumers to remain patient.
