Flood: Cooking Gas Marketers Assure Of Availability, Warn Against Illegal Storage

The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) has cautioned Nigerians over panic buying of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), otherwise known as cooking gas, as a result of the Force Majeure declared by Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG).

Its president, Mr Oladapo Olatunbosun made the appeal in a statement against the backdrop of NLNG’s declaration of force majeure on its gas facility due to flood on Monday.

Olatunbosun said, cooking gas consumers need not panic about a possible scarcity of the product as a result of the force majeure

The president reiterated that ‘based on information reaching the association; NLNG has not shut down its production facility in Bonny as rumoured.’

He confirmed that NLNG, on Thursday, 20th October, 2022, shipped a cargo of LPG for the domestic market.

He said, the dedicated vessel for shipment of LPG from the NLNG Plant in Bonny, ‘Alfred Temile,’  arrived in Lagos on Thursday to discharge product.

“The public should know that the supply of LPG from NLNG has not stopped. We should not give opportunity for further price hike due to speculated shortage of the product. We are already in hard times with the Russian/Ukraine war causing upset in the markets and the scarcity,” he advised.

The president said, NLNG has assured the association that it will keep producing LPG based on the feed-gas it receives from its gas suppliers, adding that, production was expected to pick up after the flood recedes.

He, however, cautioned middlemen in the value chain not to take advantage of the hysteria in the market as a result of the flood which has also hampered the distribution of the production across the nation.

He called for urgent intervention by critical stakeholders to grow the industry and for more investment to meet demand and crash the price.

The general manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, NLNG, Mr Andy Odeh, had in a statement earlier, urged Nigerians on the need not to rush to fill their gas cylinders as there is enough quantity of LPG to satisfy the market.

Odeh said, the flooding or force majeure declared has no impact on LPG availability.

The NLNG, account for 40 per cent supply of gas in the domestic market and in recent times, has been the sole supplier for the domestic market.

Odeh further explained that the company’s plant was in operation at a limited capacity, due to reduced gas supply from some of its upstream gas suppliers.