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.
