In a bid to lower the price of cooking gas, the Nigerian government has made a decisive move to halt the export of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly referred to as cooking gas.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo stated this on Thursday
The decision is in a bid to alleviate the scarcity and steep price surge within the country.
Findings showed that the cost of refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and some other states had climbed to about N18,000.
LPG dealers under the aegis of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers had predicted mid-last year that a 12.5kg cylinder would cost N18,000 going by the incessant hikes in its cost.
However, speaking on Thursday, Ekpo noted that the Federal Government had asked LPG producers to stop exporting the commodity.
He named some international oil companies including Mobil, Shell, and Chevron as producers, stressing that the government was interfacing with them to crash cooking gas prices.
He said: “We are interacting with critical stakeholders to ensure that there is no exportation of LPG.
“All LPG produced within the country will have to be domesticated. And when this is done, the volume will increase and of course, the price will automatically crash.
“I am in contact with the regulation, NMDPRA, we hold meetings almost on daily basis, and the producers such as Mobil, Chevron, and Shell. So there is that hope that things will turn around. We don’t need to make noise about it.”
