The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) on Friday blamed the continued hike in the price of cooking gas on exploitative activities by Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Terminal Owners and Offtakers.
Bassey Essien, its Executive Secretary, in a statement issued on Friday in Lagos said the increment had seen cooking gas increased from been sold between N2,600 and 3,000 in retail outlets to about 4,500 currently.
He said :” It has become necessary to bring to the attention of users of cooking gas, stakeholders in the industry and the Federal Government in particular to the level of exploitation that currently subsists in the pricing of cooking gas by terminal owners/offtakers.
“The federal government approved the allocation of about 350,000MT of Gas per annum for local consumption through the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company and this has been distributed through the terminals and offtakers to Gas Marketers who eventually distribute to end users.
“We noticed recently that Gas delivered to Terminals and offtakers which was being sold at N3,200,000 per 20 MT a week ago suddenly jumped to between N4,000,000 and N4,300,000 per 20MT at the terminals.”
According to him, this singular action has taken cooking gas beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians who are forced to pay a higher price for products that the price structure from NLNG has not significantly changed.
Essien said : “We therefore dissociate our Association from such exploitative acts of the terminals who are taking the industry and stakeholders for granted to the detriment of the efforts of the Federal Government at deepening cooking gas utilisation in the country, which has been yielding positive results before the hike in price. “
