Ibadan, Aug. 28, 2023 -The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) has appealed to the Federal Government to find a lasting solution to the rising price of cooking gas in the country.
Mr Abideen Olatunbosun, its National President, made the appeal during the 36th Annual General Meeting of the association in Ibadan.
He said gas might no longer be affordable to ordinary Nigerians if the rising gas prices are not addressed,
“It is very vital for me to state that continuous increase in the price of gas in recent time stands as a big challenge to LPG marketers.
“The government needs to find ways to ensure stability of gas price as well as make gas available to common Nigerians
“As a country, we need to improve on our gas utilisation level and if we all adopt gas, it will save our forest and improve quality of our lifestyle and the economy will grow.’’
He said the persistent hike in price of gas should be a concern to all and called for collaboration between the government and the private sector to establish critical gas infrastructure.
Prof. Sunday Isehunwa of the Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Ibadan, the guest speaker at the event, said LPG offered a huge promise for increased domestic gas utilisation in Nigeria.
He said that cooking gas also served as the country’s energy transition to net-zero carbon emission by 2060.
Isehunwa said there was need for increased LPG supply to meet rising demand and also curtail sharp practices by some operators.
Mr Ogbugo Ukoha of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said that the recent deregulation policy would result to in reflective petroleum products pricing.
Ukoha, who is the Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure in NMDPRA, said the current statistics showed that domestic gas supply had overtaken imported supply.