Abudu — The hike in price of cooking gas across the country has taken its toll on dealers of the commodity at Abudu and environ in Orhionmwon local government area of Edo state, as gas plants in the area are experiencing low patronage.

A visit by our correspondent to some plants in the area revealed that most users of the commodity have stayed away from the gas stations, as they have resorted to cooking with kerosene stove and firewoods.

It was gathered, those who could afford the now-scarce commodity either half fill their gas cylinder or fill it up, and support same with other cooking alternatives so it can to last long.

According to a gas dealer in the area, increase in the price of the commodity discourages people from “even thinking of using cooking gas”.

“last month it was N450, now it is N550; some sell N510. And if it continue like this nobody will come here, we will lose customers because people will beginning to go for firewood”, an attendant told The Nigerian Observer on Thursday at Abudu

Also, a user who came with a 12.5kg gas cylinder to purchase the commodity in one of the stations lamented that he had to fill “only” 3.5kg, pending when the price “will come down” for him to be able to fill up the cylinder.

The elderly man urged on the federal government to make the commodity affordable and available to Nigerians as the country has one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world.

According to a recent data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the average cost of purchasing a 12.5kg cylinder of LPG (cooking gas) in Nigeria spiked by 7.16% year-on-year in July 2021 to N4,422.32.

The data showed, the cost of a 12.5kg cylinder of (LPG) cooking gas averaged at N4,422.32 across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in July 2021, highest level in over two years.

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari on Tuesday in Abuja said the increase in prices was due to the company’s challenges in sourcing adequate supply of the commodity.

The NNPC GMD disclosed that Nigeria is “under supplied with gas”, saying, “i can tell you that we are having difficulty feeding our network across the country with gas, every day, it is a trouble to deliver gas. Once your supply is weak, it will affect pricing”

“The supply mechanism of our LPG is very weak, that is why we are collaborating extensively to make sure that we are able to extract LPG from our gas resources so that it is made available to the market. Once supply becomes high, definitely, the price will definitely be impacted.”

However, the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) has attributed the latest increase to federal government’s re-imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on imported Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).