Just days after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported a drop in the average cost of refilling a 5kg cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas from N8,243.79 in July to N6,404.02 in August 2025, the price of cooking gas has jumped sharply across Lagos, Ogun, and neighbouring states.
Checks across several communities showed that a kilogram of gas now sells between N1,800 and N3,500, depending on location. The sudden spike has forced many households to seek alternatives.
At Ijeshatedo in Lagos, a resident described her experience as exhausting. “Retailers are selling between N3,000 and N3,500 per kilogramme, while filling stations sell slightly lower at N2,500. But the queues are unbearable, with hundreds of customers waiting,” she lamented. She said she spent hours searching for gas the previous day before giving up, adding that the situation has become “unbearable,” pushing some residents to use charcoal or electric cookers.
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In Atan, Ogun State, residents reported buying gas between N2,000 and N2,500 per kilogramme under difficult conditions, while those in Igando said prices ranged from N1,800 to N2,000.
President of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Olatunbosun Oladapo, told The Guardian that the surge was due to a temporary supply disruption caused by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria strike and maintenance work at the Dangote Refinery.
“At the moment, I can tell you authoritatively that most of our LPG supply is produced locally. Importation is minimal. In fact, if you import now, you might incur losses because local supply has increased significantly,” Oladapo said.
He explained that the strike affected vessel berthing at Lagos terminals, though the NLNG had supplied large volumes to Port Harcourt, helping the South-South region avoid severe scarcity. He added that normal supply should resume soon as full-scale loading operations return.
Energy law expert and Partner at Bloomfield LP, Dr Ayodele Oni, criticised the recurring shortages despite higher gas production. According to him, increased upstream output does not necessarily improve domestic availability because a large share of production is still exported.
He said, “Domestic gas sales rose by about 22 per cent year-on-year to roughly 65,632 metric tonnes in March 2025, but much of the LPG is monetised through exports instead of being channelled into local bottling and retail.”