Gas Marketers Clash Over Price Increase, Consumers Extortion

Gas marketers across the country have clashed over the increasing prices of gas across the country and the extortion of customers.

Naija News learned that the demand for cooking gas in the country dropped by 38 percent in the last one year due to high prices.

The clash between the marketers began when the President of Nigeria Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (NLPGA), Nuhu Yakubu, claimed that the increasing gas price was due to the price of the US dollar.

Yakubu made the claim during a courtesy visit to former President, Olusegun Obasanjo last week.

In a response to the claim, the President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), Oladapo Olatunbosun, said the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) had been responsible for total local market supplies.

Olatunbosun added that no marketer had been able to import products due to Forex scarcity, adding that NLPGA inflated the price of a 20metric tonnes(MT) by 100 per cent.

He said gas importers who were members of NLPGA sold to plant owners at N12.7m per 20metric tons (MT) despite purchasing the product at around N7m per 20MT from NLNG and other local producers.

Olatunbosun said gas demand had dropped from 1.2 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to around 750,000mtpa.

Following the clash between the two groups, the NLNG has remained silent in the face of the current altercation between gas marketers over price.