The federal government has been urged by the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) to find a long-term solution to the nation’s escalating cost of cooking gas.
This was said by Abideen Olatunbosun, national president of NALPGAM, at the association’s 36th annual general meeting on Tuesday in Ibadan.
Mr. Olatunbosun stated, “It is very important for me to highlight that the current continual increase in petrol prices poses a significant challenge to LPG marketers. The government must figure out a means to keep petrol costs stable and provide petrol to everyday Nigerians.
“As a nation, we need to increase the amount of petrol we use, and if we all use petrol, it will protect our forests, enhance the standard of living, and boost the economy.”
He claims that everyone is concerned about the increase in gas prices, which necessitates a partnership between the public and private sectors to build essential gas infrastructure.
Sunday Isehunwa, a guest speaker from the Department of Petroleum Engineering in the Faculty of Technology at the University of Ibadan, claimed that LPG had great promise for boosting domestic petrol usage in Nigeria.
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“The main provider of LPG has been Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG). However, additional supplies must be provided by operating refineries and sufficient infrastructure for processing natural gas. For extra supplies, it is also crucial to remove obstacles to importation when necessary, according to Mr. Isehunwa.
“Adequate infrastructure development is highly necessary to improve rural communities’ access to LPG,” he continued. Accessibility will rise as customers gain more economic power and as goods become more affordable.
The new deregulation strategy, according to Ogbugo Ukoha of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), would lead to reflected petroleum product pricing.
The executive director of Distribution Systems, Storage, and Retailing Infrastructure for the NMDPRA, Mr. Ukoha, indicated that recent statistics had shown that the domestic gas supply had surpassed the import supply.
In order to ensure a seamless distribution of the product, Mr. Ukoha stated that the requisite infrastructure expenditure must be made.
“Our focus is to make the necessary investments in gas infrastructure to increase the supply of LPG so that its price is forced down for Nigerians,” said Mr. Ukoha.
(NAN)
