LAGOS – The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to stop Algasco LPG Services from increasing the price of cooking gas.
Mr Basil Ogbuanu, the President of NALPGAM, made the appealed in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
The association said that the Federal Government’s intervention became necessary because Algasco LPG Services, the nation’s biggest gas supplier, had used its position to create a monopoly market.
Ogbuanu noted that Algasco is licensed to lift the product supplied by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Ltd.
He also said that the marketers’ concerns followed the current hike in the price of cooking gas from Algasco’s subsisdiary, Navgas, with its terminal at Apapa, Lagos.
He added that increasing the price “without any justifiable reason would threaten the recent boom in the LPG market and erode the gains recorded over the years”.
He alleged that Algasco increased the price of 20 metric tonnes of gas to N3.5 million from N3.3million.
The new price regime, Ogbuanu said, meant that 12.5 kilogramme cylinder of gas would cost more than N4, 000 at retail outlets.
According to him, the price hike will wipe out the gains recorded in the LPG market since the intervention of NLNG in 2007.
“Nigeria LNG Ltd, in conjunction with the Federal Government’s intervention in this scheme has ensured the availability of this product and stability in pricing.
“Since the beginning of this year, the price has been between N3.1 million and N3.3 million per 20 metric tonnes.
“The only time we have this kind of crisis is any time this particular terminal is the only one that has gas.
“It happened sometime in December 2012, when they hiked the price from N3.2 million to N4.6 million,” he told NAN.
“We have three terminals in Lagos and they are the only ones among the three that has gas now.
“Before now, they did not have gas and the other two terminals that had gas were selling between N3.25 million and N3.3 million.
[eap_ad_2] “They are now creating unnecessary scarcity and making the price to jump up at the detriment of the Nigerian people and the LPG scheme by the Federal Government and the NLNG.”
He accused Algasco of always sabotaging the nation’s gas sub-sector as it is now “notorious for increasing the price anytime its terminal was the only one that has product in Lagos”.
He insisted that there was no basis for the hike, since NLNG had not increased the price of the product.
Also speaking, Mrs Makinwa Omoyemi, NALPGAM Executive Secretary, said that the non-reversal of Algasco gas pricing would create market instability and artificial scarcity.
But in a swift reaction, Algasco Sales Representative, who pleaded anonymity, said the allegation was part of the marketers’ conspiracy against his company.
The official blamed the price increase on the recent price hike on bulk gas by Mont Belvieu LPG, a major, distributor.
He said the price increase was a fallout of proper cost assessment which raised it to N3.5 million per metric tonne, compared with the earlier cost of N3.4 million per metric tonne.
But Mont Belvieu LPG has said the international market had increased from 563 dollars per metric tonne on Sept. 1 to 576 dollars as at Sept. 15.
The sales representative also debunked the claims by the marketers that the other major distributors had sold the product at N3.3 million before her company received their quota and started selling at N3.5 million.
According to him, the other companies had sold at N3.4 million and that his company only increased the price from N3.4 million to N3.5 million due to the price raise by Mont Belvieu at the international market.
He identified the other companies which had sold at N3.4 million before NLNG brought product to Algasco terminal as NIPCO Plc, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of NNPC and Total Nigeria Plc. (NAN) [eap_ad_3]
