Advertisement

Between October 2021 and 2022 same month, the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) soared by 70.62percent.

The average retail price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder was N2,627.94 in 2021 but rose to N4,483.75 in October 2022.

Advertisement

On a month-on-month basis, the commodity increased by 0.21% from N4,474 recorded in September 2022 to N4,483.75 in October 2022.

According to data from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Kwara recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) with N4,955, followed by Niger with N4,950 and Adamawa with N4,940.

On the other hand, Abia recorded the lowest price with N4,045 followed by Kano and Delta with N4,100 and N4,139 respectively.

Advertisement

Similarly, the average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg Cylinder of cooking gas increased by 1.45% on a month-on-month basis from N9,906 in September 2022 to N10,050 in October 2022.

On a year-on-year basis, this rose by 51.40% from N6,638 in October’s 2021 with Cross River recording the highest average retail price with N10,986 followed by Oyo with N10,826 and Kogi with N10,783.

The lowest average price was recorded in Yobe with N8,533 followed by Sokoto and Katsina with N9,100 and N9,202 respectively.

The ​Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) had at the Nigerian Association of LPG Marketers (NALPGAM) 35th Annual General Meeting in September said the market’s inability to completely absorb NLNG’s propane production was part of the challenges which have slowed the utilisation of LPG in the country.

Advertisement

NLNG’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Philip Mshelbila, said,”When we made that commitment last year, the intention was that every molecule of butane and propane that we produce in our facility will come into the domestic market and since then we have made every effort to keep to that since January 2022. We have been successful in achieving supply of 100% of our butane production.

“We have not been able to reach 100% with propane, not because we don’t want to but because the market capacity to absorb the propane is just not there. We intend that all the butane and all the propane that we produce goes into the domestic market whether propane is being used to blend with butane as cooking gas, used as autogas, or used in industry to generate power,” he said

He said the NLNG was committed to supply 100% of all its Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) production (butane and propane) to the Nigerian domestic market despite feed gas and market challenges.

Advertisement

Mshelbila noted that:“Our production capacity as NLNG can supply about 400,000 tons per annum which is somewhere roughly about 40% of the current national demand. This means that the balance has to be imported.”

However, he noted the need to address crude oil theft saying,”Last year, we supplied about 400,000 tons per annum into the Nigerian market. But we did that under extremely difficult circumstances where our gas supply into our plant was heavily compromised by numerous upstream factors, the single biggest one of which is crude oil theft. And as a result of the disruption that this created, our capacity utilisation fell.

“Unfortunately, that remains the case today. If we have more gas input to our plant, we can produce more LPG. So the issue of supply for us starts with addressing the upstream supply challenges, the biggest of which is crude oil theft,” he added.

(Tribune)