The rift between Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has pushed up cooking gas prices by 33 percent across Nigeria, leaving many households struggling to afford the essential commodity.

A kilogramme of cooking gas has risen from N1200 to N1600.

Across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and other major cities on Tuesday, residents were forced to ration consumption or resort to alternative fuels such as kerosene, firewood and charcoal, further straining household budgets.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) retailers said they were battling acute shortages, as supply from both local producers and importers tightened significantly.

?The situation is unbearable,? said Chinyere Nwankwo, a mother of three who lives in Abuja. ?I bought gas at N1,200 per kilogramme two weeks ago, but today it is N1,600. We can?t continue like this. Families are being suffocated.?

Industry sources blame the scarcity on disagreement between PENGASSAN and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery over pricing, supply channels and contractual terms.

?LPG scarcity persists nationwide as PENGASSAN delays LPG discharge in Apapa,? said LPG in Nigeria, a social enterprise that started in 2011 to grow the Nigerian LPG industry through advocacy.

Although the 650,000-barrel-per-day facility is expected to reduce Nigeria?s dependence on imports, reports suggest that limited volumes are being released into the domestic market. This, combined with rising global gas prices and foreign exchange pressures, has worsened the crisis.

Retailers argue that the federal government has failed to intervene decisively to stabilise the sector. ?We are left at the mercy of producers and middlemen as the scarcity continues,? said Adam Sulaimon, a retailer in Lagos.

?Every day since last weekend, the price has gone up, and we have no choice but to pass it to consumers. If the scarcity continues, it could hit N2,000 per kilogramme before next week.?

The surge in cooking gas prices has far-reaching implications. Beyond household hardship, it undermines Nigeria?s clean energy transition agenda, which aims to discourage the use of firewood and charcoal due to concerns about deforestation and the environment.

The issue may escalate without quick resolution

The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGAM) warns that without a swift resolution between PENGASSAN, Dangote, and other key stakeholders, the crisis could escalate into a national emergency.

Olatunbosun Oladapo, NALPGAM?s president, said its members are on standby to get the supply. However, vessel discharge has been stopped on the back of the PENGASSAN strike.

He said: ?There?s no loading in any depot as we speak now. Our members are there to pick gas, but there?s nowhere to pick. Virtually all the storage facilities are dry, and the vessel was not allowed to discharge.

?There?s no Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), and other officers to inspect because of this PENGASSAN strike.

?So it?s a national issue, and we are seeing the effects. The earlier we solve this problem, the better for the country. Because if there is no gas supply for the next three days, then there will be problems.?

The NMDPRA has yet to issue a clear statement, though insiders say the government is weighing options that include emergency imports and stakeholder engagement.

For now, Nigerians remain in the grip of soaring costs. ?Cooking gas should not be a luxury,? said Nwankwo. ?But right now, it feels like only the rich can afford to cook.?

Meeting continues after Monday deadlock

The mediation meeting to resolve the ongoing dispute between Dangote Refinery and PENSASSAN ended in a deadlock on Monday as both parties could not come to terms, after about nine hours of meeting.

The meeting, which was chaired by Muhammad Dingyadi, minister of Labour and Employment, had the leadership of PENGASSAN, Dangote Refinery, minister of finance, and key directors of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority in attendance.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting at the early hours of Tuesday, Festus Osifo, president of PENGASSAN, explained that the meeting could not resolve the issues at hand as the management of Dangote Refinery refused to reinstate the sacked staff.

He insisted that the demand of the association was the reinstatement of the 800 staff who were sacked, adding that the strike action would continue without their reinstatement.

?Yes, as you could see, we?ve been here for about nine hours trying to find solutions. And we?ve had numerous deliberations from the larger team. We broke into a smaller team, trying to find solutions. But unfortunately, there is no solution tonight.

?All we want is that we have 800 people plus that are at home. These people are fathers; they are mothers, and their careers are at stake. When you terminate people the way you?ve terminated them, it will be extremely difficult for them to find jobs anywhere.

? Some of these people are trainees and you said they have committed sabotage. So, if they go home like that, there is no other company they will get jobs to do again in Nigeria because they have seen them as saboteurs. So, these are careers that will be damaged if proper remedy is not put in place.

?So, that is why for us, our position has been very clear, you have to reinstate these people. If you reinstate them tonight, we will call off our action tonight, but unfortunately, that reinstatement did not happen. And we were not able to reach conclusions on the subject.

?So they have asked us to come back again by 2 o?clock. So, we will reconvene and we pray that God should touch the heart of the capitalists. God should touch the heart of the oppressors for them to call our people back to work,? Osifo said. (BusinessDay, but headline rejigged)

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