Cooking gas price rose by 14.4% in October—NBS

The average retail cost for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) saw a month-on-month rise of 14.04%, rising from N9,247.40 in September 2023 to N10,545.87 in October 2023. This is according to the National Bureau of Statistics, latest LPG (cooking gas) price watch for October 2023. When compared with the corresponding period of last year, the cost of cooking gas increased by 4.93% from N10,050.53 in October 2022. Furthermore, the average retail price for 5kg gas in Nigeria increased by 8.89% from N4,189.96 recorded in September to N4,562.51 in October.

According to the NBS, the price of 5kg cooking gas rose by 1.76% from the N4,483.75 for October 2022. When compared across states, Edo emerged with the highest average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) at N12,536.88, trailed by Jigawa at N12,050.00 and Delta at N11,987.50. On the other hand, Zamfara saw the lowest price of cooking gas at N9,050.00, followed by Lagos and Oyo at N9,071.05 and N9,407.14, respectively.

When compared across geopolitical zones, the South-South region recorded the highest average retail price for the same gas cylinder size at N11,480.60, followed by the North-Central at N10,683.97, while the South-East recorded the lowest average price at N9,847.42. A recent reportsaid that cooking gas prices are increasing for two reasons-low investment in natural gas exploration across the country and low production of associated gas because of crude oil theft rampant in the Niger Delta. Although Nigeria boasts of over 200 trillion cbf of natural gas reserve which puts her among the top ten countries with the largest gas reserves in the world, low investment has result in her being an importer of LPG