Demand for cooking gas has dropped by 38%, as merchants strife over price
According to the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, NALPGAM, national cooking gas demand has decreased by 38%.
The news came as a group of specialists claimed on Tuesday that demand for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), also known as cooking gas, had reached a new low across the country.
At a downstream event in Lagos, the President of the Nigerian Gas Association, Ed Ubong, stated that national gas usage had decreased due to high costs.
Bassey Essien, the Executive Secretary of NALPGAM, confirmed the news to The PUNCH in a telephone conversation.
In response to the uproar, NALPGAM President Oladapo Olatunbosun claimed on Wednesday that gas demand has fallen from 1.2 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to roughly 750,000mtpa.
“We are aware that the local consumption of cooking gas has dropped from 1.2 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to around 750,000mtpa out of which about 600,000 mtpa is supplied by local producers,” Oladapo Olatunbosun said, bringing the percentage drop in demand to 37.5 percent per annum.
Gas importers who were members of the NLPGA claimed supplies to plant owners at a price of N12.7 million per 20 metric tons (MT), despite buying the commodity for roughly N7 million per 20 MT from NLNG and other local producers.
PUNCH
