In spite of the promises made by the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, that the Federal Government was going to crash the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, also known as cooking gas, the price of the product is still rising.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) Price Watch for November 2023, report that the average retail price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas increased by 5.82 percent on a month-on-month basis from N4,562.51 recorded in October 2023 to N4,828.18 in November 2023. On a year-on-year basis, this increased by 6.13 percent from N4,549.14 in November 2022.
In state profile analysis, Benue recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas with N5,466.67, followed by Jigawa with N5,396.43, and Adamawa with N5,357.14. On the other hand, Anambra recorded the lowest price with N3,985.29, followed by Imo and Abia with N4,052.78 and N4,100.00 respectively.
In addition, analysis by zone showed that the North-East recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas with N5,029.25, followed by the North-West with N4,999.34, while the South-East recorded the lowest with N4,083.52
The key challenges identified as responsible for LPG price increase include, FX sourcing for imports and insufficient supply to the domestic market by producers.
The minister had last month summoned a meeting of stakeholders including top officials of Chevron Nigeria Limited led by Sansay Narasimi; Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority led by its Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, to work out a way of addressing identified challenges causing the persistent rise in the price of LPG in the country.
Exports was quoted then as saying, “With the exponential increase in the price of LPG, there is the need for the Federal Government to intervene and I am representing this at this moment.
“We acknowledge that some producers are exporting while we are faced with the challenges of importation.
“Public interest is the overriding interest all over the world for the government, and the demand for LPG will increase as we approach December…you have a public service obligation to collaborate with the government to ensure the security of gas supply, we need to therefore bend backwards and find solutions, to ensure that we have sufficient supply and stability in-country and that Nigerians have gas.”
The minister thereafter constituted a committee with a mandate to come up with recommendations on how to boost supplies and crash LPG prices within a week.
Meanwhile, the average retail price per litre of Household Kerosene (HHK) paid by consumers in November 2023 was N1287.10, indicating a decline of 1.23 percent when compared to N1,303.16 recorded in October 2023.
On a year-on-year basis, the average retail price per litre of the product rose by 18.78 percent from N1,083.57 in November 2022. On state profile analysis, the highest average price per litre in November 2023 was recorded in Adamawa with N1,588.10, followed by Imo with N1,521.97 and Abuja with N1,512.50.
On the other hand, the lowest price was recorded in Kwara with N937.50, followed by Osun with N1,100.00 and Zamfara with N1,125.00.
In addition, analysis by zone showed that the South-East recorded the highest average retail price per litre of Household Kerosene with N1,384.49, followed by the North-East with N1,367.81, while the North-West recorded the lowest with N1,226.75.
The average retail price per gallon of Household Kerosene paid by consumers in November 2023 was N4,583.44, showing an increase of 0.03 percent from N4,581.89 in October 2023. On a year-on-year basis, this increased by 27.51 percent from N3,594.44 in November 2022.