A destroyed refinery By Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited( NNPCL) says it has destroyed 134 illegal refineries in the last few weeks. Also, the company said 63 illegal pipeline connections were uncovered during the the weeks . The corporation, In a visual report, stated that at about 2 am on Sunday, a joint team of security agents discovered a large wooden boat illicitly loading stolen crude oil from Barge AGS01 within the OML 18 operating area, noted intelligence report a large wooden wooden boat was caught receiving crude oil from the barge. According to the state-owned oil firm, while the barge was towed away with a tugboat in custody, five speedboats used in towing the large wooden boat to the illegal loading site were also detained and the particulars of the tugboats and barge used for the operation were reportedly seized for further investigation. It further said that two large boats, which involve
By Akinola Ajibade
Marketers have said that immediate removal of (Value Added Tax(VAT) from the gas sector, is the only antidote to the rising prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas( LPG) also known as cooking gas in the country.
They said the imposition of VAT on cooking gas and other materials was responsible for the upward trend in the prices of the product since two years.
Currently, a 12.5 kilogramme gas cylinder is filled with between N11,000 and N12,500.
Speaking during an appearance with the joint committee of the House of Representatives in Abuja recently, the President, Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM), Mr Olapado Olatubosun, blamed the ‘portfolio investors’ for the high cost of cooking gas.
He urged the Federal Government to remove VAT from the gas sector to maintain price stability, adding that middlemen rely on it to maximise profit by as much as 100 per cent.
The government, Olatubosun said, has through the Nigerian Liquefied and Natural Gas( NLNG) , has been injecting sufficient gas into the market but middlemen, who are aiming to maximise profits, are responsible for the steep prices.
However, contrary to Mr Olatunbosun’s claim, sources at the NLNG told News Mirror, that although the company now supplies all its petroleum gas to the Nigerian market, it meets only about half the local needs of Nigerians. The rest is imported, which is currently affected by the global oil crisis.
He said the steep increase in the price of gas is driving consumers away from using gas, thereby moving to charcoal which harms the environment.
“The only way to stimulate investment is to make the price affordable. There are infrastructural challenges, but there are still human interventions that we need we need to control.
“Supply should be directly to people that need it. How many gas plant owners are actually off-takers. There are production going on in Edo in Oredo. How many of them are they selling? People come from different angles who are portfolio investors, they buy gas and they hack on it, the price goes up,” he said.
He called for more investment in the sector to meet demand and also crash the price.
“In the long run, what Nigeria needs to do is to invite investors to invest simply in exploration. We have an abundant deposit of gas in the soil but the exploration is too low for the population,” he said.
After his presentation, the lawmakers had a closed-door session with the marketers, the Group Managing Director of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari and others.
The average retail price of 10kg cooking gas increased by 89.28 per cent from N2,071.69 in May 2021 to N3,921.35 in May 2022, according to data by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.
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