KEY POINTS
- Cooking gas now sells between N1,200 and N1,400 per kg in Lagos, defying expectations of a price drop.
- Marketers cite supply delays, refinery maintenance, and logistics issues as reasons for the sustained increase.
- Industry expects prices to stabilise soon with Seplat Energy and Dangote Refinery ramping up gas supply.
Cooking gas prices across Nigeria have continued to soar despite repeated assurances from marketers that the commodity would soon revert to its pre-October range of N950 to N1,000 per kilogram.
A market survey across Lagos revealed that Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was being sold for between N1,200 and N1,400 per kilogram, with price variations depending on location. At Gasland in Igando and Mac Rich Gas Plant at Cele-Okota, consumers paid N1,200 per kg, while other outlets charged as high as N1,400.
Retailers who buy the product in bulk quantities of 150 to 200 kilograms reported paying about N1,104 per kg at depots, a sharp jump from N900 to N950 recorded just a month earlier.
Some gas plant operators, who spoke anonymously, blamed the surge on rising operational costs and lingering supply constraints. “As of last month, we sold for N900 or N950 per kg. Now we retail at N1,200. This is the reality in the country right now, though we hope prices will ease in the coming weeks,” one operator said.
Supply Gaps and Refinery Logistics Slow Price Recovery
The outgoing President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Olatunbosun Oladapo, attributed the prolonged high prices to a backlog of unsupplied products, maintenance delays, and refinery logistics issues.
In a phone interview, he expressed confidence that the market would soon stabilise with the entry of Seplat Energy’s gas output, combined with increased production from Dangote Refinery and other ongoing investments in gas infrastructure. These developments, he noted, were expected to ease supply pressures and bring prices under control nationwide.
Oladapo spoke at the association’s 38th Annual General Meeting, where he disclosed that Nigeria’s LPG consumption had risen significantly from about 900,000 metric tonnes in 2021 to 2 million metric tonnes in 2025.
“About four years ago, national consumption stood between 900,000 and one million metric tonnes. Today, we are consuming roughly two million metric tonnes, and by the first quarter of next year, that figure is projected to hit three million,” he said.
