The Federal Government on Tuesday banned the exportation of locally produced Liquefied Petroleum Gas, also known as cooking gas, as part of its efforts to ensure adequate supply locally and by implication, reduce its surging price.
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, in a statement issued by his Special Assistant (Media), Louis Ibah, confirmed that the implementation of the ban on the product would commence from November 1 this year.
Ekpo, who expressed serious concern over the sustained surge in LPG price, said the decision was reached at a high-level meeting convened by him with stakeholders to address the escalating price, especially in view of its attendant hardship on ordinary Nigerians.
He said: “With effect from November 1, 2024, NNPCL and LPG producers are to stop exporting LPG produced in-country or import equivalent volumes of LPG exported at cost-reflective prices.”
The minister directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to meet with stakeholders to derive the pricing framework within 90 days.
According to him, to achieve this, the “NMDPRA will engage stakeholders to create a domestic LPG pricing framework within 90 days, indexing price to cost of in-country production, rather than the current practice of indexing against external markets, such as the Americas and Far East Asia, whereas the commodity is produced in-country and the Nigerian people are required to pay much higher price for an essential commodity the country is naturally endowed with.”
As a long-term solution to the rising price of the product in the domestic market, Ekpo promised that within 12 months, facilities would be developed to blend, store, and deliver LPG, thereby ending exports until the domestic market gets adequate supply of the product.
Meanwhile, the latest ‘Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) Price Watch (September 2024)’ published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in on Thursday, October 17, indicated thatNigerian users of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, paid N16,313.43 for a 12.5kg cylinder of the product in September this year, up from N9,247.40 they paid for the same volume of gas in September last year, representing a price surge of 76.41% year-on-year.
The agency, however, clarified that during the month, the price of a 5kg cylinder rose to N6,699.63, which is 59.90% increase year-on-year.
According to the report, the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of the commodity increased by 4.19% on a month-on-month basis from N6,430.02 recorded in August 2024 to N6,699.63 in September 2024 and on a year-on year basis, it rose by 59.90% from N4,189.96 in September 2023.
