- Oil firm chief assures prices will drop as supply chains stabilize following labor action.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari, has attributed the recent widespread scarcity and sharp price increase of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), or cooking gas, to the temporary industrial action by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
Speaking to State House correspondents on Sunday after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, Ojulari characterized the price surge as an “artificial” market anomaly caused by disruptions in logistics.
“The increase you saw was relatively artificial because for the period of the strike, movements and loading were delayed by about two, three days,” Ojulari said. “And because of that, you see that impact. As things return back to normal, it takes some time for distribution to be fully restored.”
Retailers Exploited Shortfall
The price hike saw cooking gas costs soar across major Nigerian cities, with Lagos residents reporting prices reaching as high as N3,000 per kilogram, according to market surveys.
Ojulari also accused opportunistic retailers of exploiting the temporary shortfall for personal gain, stating that those who possessed existing stock raised their prices unreasonably.
“As you know, in Nigeria, people take opportunity. With that delay, some of the people that had existing resources and reserves had to put up the price,” he noted.
The PENGASSAN strike, which was launched over the dismissal of Nigerian workers at the Dangote Refinery, was suspended on October 1 following federal government intervention.
Ojulari expressed confidence that the market correction would be swift now that operations have resumed. “My expectation is that now that things are back to normal, prices should return to what they were before the strike,” he assured Nigerians.
The NNPCL chief concluded by confirming that the resolution of the dispute, including the Dangote Group’s agreement to redeploy affected staff and the resumption of full operations, should alleviate supply bottlenecks in the coming weeks.
