Nigerians are facing renewed economic hardship as the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas commonly known as cooking gas, has surged sharply across the country.
LPG is used for cooking and fuelling vehicles.
The new development was said to have been fueled by a nationwide shortage following a recent oil workers’ strike.
Prices have spiked dramatically in major cities, including Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt.
Across many retail outlets, the cost of a kilogram of LPG has jumped from approximately N1,000 to between N1,600 and N1,800, representing an increase of up to 80% in a few days.
In Lagos and Ogun States, a 12.5kg cylinder now costs as high as N26,000 to N27,000 (up to N2,200 per kg) in some areas, compared to roughly N12,500 the previous week.
In Abuja, refilling a 12.5kg cylinder now ranges from N17,000 to over N20,000, with many outlets completely running out of stock by Wednesday.
The national scarcity was triggered by a three-day strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria some days ago, which disrupted supply and distribution networks.
Although the strike, called to protest the dismissal of workers at the Dangote Refinery, has been suspended, the impact on supply has been immediate and severe.
Bayo Ojulari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, confirmed the link between the strike and the price hike. Speaking after a visit to President Bola Tinubu, Ojulari assured the public that the spike was “relatively artificial” and temporary.
“Because of that, you see that impact as things return back to normal,” Ojulari said, attributing part of the increase to opportunistic retailers and marketers who raised prices on existing stock. He expressed his expectation that “now that things are back to normal, prices should return back to what they were before the strike.”
The sudden increase has sparked widespread anger and distress among Nigerians, who are already grappling with high inflation. Many took to social media to vent their frustration, noting the devastating impact on household budgets and small businesses.
On X (formerly Twitter), user @Mama_Tee wrote, “N1,800 for one kg of cooking gas. It was N850 just a few months ago. This is completely unsustainable. How are households meant to cook? We are being priced out of basic living.”
@SmallBizChef highlighted the impact on entrepreneurs: “My budget for my small catering business has been completely ruined. I can’t pass this cost to my customers. If this doesn’t ease, many small food vendors will close down. The government must stop this artificial scarcity.”
User @AbujaWife questioned the government’s competence: “A three-day strike leads to a national commodity shortage and price hike this massive. What does that say about our national reserve and logistics planning? This isn’t just about the strike; it’s about fragility.“
Others called out the repeated cycle of price shocks. @TheRealFemi commented, “Welcome to Nigeria, where every minor disruption equals a major price apocalypse. We barely recovered from the last hike, and now this. When will stability be a priority?”
Reacting, the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers said some retailers are exploiting a current supply shortage to hike the price of cooking gas.
Oladapo Olatunbosun, the association’s national president, spoke on Wednesday on a national television.
Olatunbosun clarified that the price of the product has not been officially increased.
“But I must say categorically that the price of gas has not gone up. No increment has been done officially,” he said.
“What is happening is that people are catching up on the little shortage in supply and the market forces that have made the demand go up higher than the available quantity.
“They are catching up on it to make good money, which is wrong. We frown at this as an association and I’m happy by the grace of God Almighty that in the next few days, normalcy will come.”
He added that Nigerians would continue to enjoy cooking gas at reasonable prices once the supply situation stabilises.
Speaking further, Olatunbosun explained that the “artificial” scarcity of LPG resulted from inconsistent supply by the Dangote refinery, compounded by the strike action embarked upon by PENGASSAN.
He said Dangote refinery previously sold LPG to around 50 trucks each day — enough to cater to consumers in the south-west and some northern regions.
“Add it to what we get from Apapa and other depots in Lagos, because they (marketers) also source their products from international oil companies (IOCs) and other producers and so on,” Olatunbosun said.
“So Dangote came in with his own strategy, selling directly to off-takers that actually do business and the chain of distributors was shortened.”
He explained that this development made the landing cost reasonable, adding that it rendered importation unattractive since importers could not compete effectively.
“But at the time, Dangote also commenced renovation/maintenance, which actually delayed loading. There was a time that trucks were spending about 13 to 14 days in Dangote yard before they could get products,” Olatunbosun said.
“That was a lag which actually which impeded the flow of gas into the society. But after that, people switched to Apapa. So Apapa also ramped up stock.
“Nobody felt the impact then because Apapa was like a stand by, and people were buying from there. Apparently, the stock that they were not able to sell before, they got people to buy when there was a delay in Dangote refinery’s loading. We passed that stage when Dangote refinery finished the renovation.”
However, he explained that the PENGASSAN strike prevented vessels from being offloaded at the depots, as there were no officials available to carry out inspections.
“They (Dangote refinery) didn’t stop their production but everybody had rushed to Apapa. Apapa then didn’t have products. All the depots in Apapa were dry,” Olatunbosun said.
He added that it caused three to five days’ loss.
“That five days showed the real impact on the backlog that we had experienced from irregular flow from Dangote refinery. The only option that marketers had was also to dry out, and they could not get a new supply,” the association’s president said.
However, Olatunbosun noted that the situation has improved and is expected to get better over the weekend as new vessels carrying the product arrive.
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