Due to the continuous rise in price of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpo Ekop, has formed a committee with a directive to come up with recommendations on how to enhance supplies and crash the price of the commodity.
The Federal Government has initiated a process to resolve challenges bordering on the supply and pricing of Liquefied Petroleum Gas in the country’s domestic market better known as cooking gas.
A statement by Louis Ibah, spokesman for the Minister of
State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said the minister waded into
the issue following a rise in the price of LPG per kg from about N700 to above
N1,100 in some parts of the country.
He said the meeting,
at the instance of the minister, which was held at the NNPC Towers Abuja
recently had in attendance 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.
The PUNCH reports that key challenges identified as
responsible for LPG price increase include FX sourcing for imports and
insufficient supply to the domestic market by producers.
Ekpo expressed the concerns of President Bola Tinubu over
the astronomical increase in the price of cooking gas and the attendant
hardship on the majority of citizens.
The minister who noted that Nigeria is abundantly endowed
with gas reserves, said the situation where some of the multinational firms
were more concerned with gas exports without dedicating huge volumes to the
domestic market was unacceptable and should be discouraged.
He said, “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.