Gas marketers, under the auspices of Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, have commended the federal government for its policy banning the exportation of cooking gas, saying the policy had resulted in the crash of the price of the commodity from N1500/kg to N900/kg.
A statement by Louis Ibah, spokesperson to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, quoted the marketers to have given the commendation at a meeting with the minister on Wednesday, in Abuja.
According to him, National President, NALPGAM, Oladapo Olatunbosun, commended Ekpo for the courage in ordering the domestication of all LPG produced within the country, stressing that the policy resulted in the reduction and stabilisation of the product’s price in the domestic market.
Ibah, recalled that during a stakeholders consultative forum in Abuja in February, the association drew the minister’s attention to the fact that some international oil companies operating in the country had been exporting huge volumes of gas.
He had pointed out that if these volumes were to be available for the domestic market, there would be no need to import LPG at exorbitant rates as the product would be available and there would be price stability in the local market.
The NALPGAM president thanked the federal government for heeding to their plea, as the government’s intervention made the price of LPG that was sold for N20 million per 20 metric tonnes to drop to N15 million.
And at the retail end, there is a corresponding decrease from N1,400 – N1,500 per kilogram to between N900 – N1,000 per kilogram, according to the gas marketers.
Olatunbosun was quoted as saying, “People who abandoned their gas cylinders due to price hike are coming back and we are confident that by the time the naira gains more weight, consumers will enjoy better price of LPG.”
