The founder of LPG in Nigeria, Godwin Okoduwa, has attributed the scarcity and hike in the price of cooking gas to supply issues.
Okoduwa made this known on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
“The major issue is actually a supply issue. You noted that we have LPG available but are wondering why we are still facing scarcity and high costs,” Okoduwa said.
He said the market is deregulated and since then has grown, moving from 70,000 metric tonnes to 1.6 million tonnes.
Explaining why there is a supply issue, he said: “I would start with data. Last year, from the 1.6 million tonnes per annum that the country consumes, Dangote moved 700,000, 43 per cent of the market. NLNG did about 500,000 metric tonnes; the others came from the likes of Kwale Hydrocarbons and other gas plants spread across the South-South and the South-West.
“Then we had less than 20 per cent import. Prior to now, we had close to between 40 and 50 per cent imports, but when the Dangote Refinery started, there was no need for imports. In fact, if you import, you get your fingers burnt, so this became the case, and why did we have up to 15 per cent? We had about 50 per cent last year,” he said.
“We have 15 per cent because the Dangote refinery went into maintenance. If you look at NMDPRA figures of 2025 you will see that in the month of September, there was this dip in the month of September. In the month of September, the market took about 117,000 metric tonnes. That is very low in the market, which was doing 140,000 tonnes.
“It happened because the Dangote Refinery was down. There was maintenance going on. Apart from the March figure, if you go to September, there was this outcry, scarcity in September.”
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Across the country, the cost of LPG, which is commonly known as ‘cooking gas ‘, has skyrocketed, moving from around ₦1,300 per kg, depending on the area, to ₦1,700 and ₦2,200 per kg.
The hike in price has raised concerns among Nigerians, with many saying the development has brought hardship to households that rely on gas for cooking.
However, the LPG founder claimed that more imports are coming in and prices are going down.
“In the past two weeks, we have seen fresh imports from Rainoil and NAVGAS. More imports are coming in, and this has assuaged the supply gap. Prices have started coming down. At the depot, prices went as high as 29 million or even 30 million Naira in some places, but we can now see prices in the range of 24 million and even around 23 million Naira from Dangote.
“So this, as a result of supply. The forces of demand and supply will always happen. Anytime supply is low, prices will go up. There is no subsidy; this is basic Economics 101,” Okoduwa said.
He also said Nigeria should be more proactive with energy security.
“Moving forward, we need to be more intentional with energy security. We must monitor our reserves. We must know exactly where our sources of LPG are coming from and monitor them,” he said.
The Federal Government held an emergency stakeholder meeting with security agencies to ensure improvement of supply, affordability, and market stability of LPG across the country.
