Economy
High Price of Cooking Gas Worries NNPC
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has expressed worry over the high price of cooking gas, known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The Group Managing Director of the agency, Mr Mele Kyari, said efforts are already being made to address the issue, assuring that the price would soon normalise.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Emadeb Energy Services Limited’s 120MT LPG Storage and Bottling Plant in Abuja, Mr Kyari blamed supply shortage for the problem, noting that the NNPC was working to there is enough supply in the market.
He said the supply shortage was caused by the rising price of crude oil and its derivatives at the world market.
“Two things are at play; one is the supply and the other is the international price of gas. It (price) moves with the price of every other petroleum product including crude oil and its derivatives. So it is a reflection of what is happening in the international market.
“What we are doing is to increase supply. Once the supply is increased, the prices will come down,” he said.
The NNPC GMD said that the newly-inaugurated LPG plant was going to “reduce the cost of energy for Nigerians for the fact that LPG is cheaper than any other product you can think of, especially as cooking fuel.”
He commended Emadeb Energy Services Limited for building the LPG plant in Abuja, explaining that the project aligned with one of the steps the Federal Government had taken to provide gas for its citizenry.
He lauded the plan by the company to build similar plants in six different locations across the country within the next 12 to 18 months, adding that this was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s decade of gas initiative.
Mr Kyari said: “We are aware that a lot of institutions and companies are doing this across the country. We are selecting this in line with Mr President’s objectives to make this the decade of gas.”
He also stated that one of the many ways investors could key into the decade of gas initiative was to have facilities like this for auto-gas conversion, and also to ensure that LPG is easily accessible to people.
Mr Kyari also noted that the global energy transition had made the investment climate very ripe for gas even as he assured those investing in the LPG project that the NNPC would guarantee supply of gas to their facilities.
“We know that the investment climate is very ripe for auto-gas and auto fuel, especially in terms of LPG as a transition fuel globally. So, we know that this is a big market for Nigerian companies and this is one of the great companies that we have around.
“As NNPC, we will come in and we will guarantee supply. That is very important for us as a business. As you are aware, we are NNPC Limited in Nigeria and we also have to make money for Nigeria. We will be there in the upstream to provide the gas.”
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of Emadeb Energy Services Limited, Mr Debo Olujimi, said that although the capacity of the plant was currently 120MT, plans were afoot to expand it to 240MT in the next 18 months.
He described the business of gas infrastructure as capital intensive and urged the federal government to encourage private investors to get value for their money.
“There is a lot of value in gas. Everybody knows that gas is the way forward and the way it is, there is much gas with the decade of gas and with over two trillion cubic feet of gas reserve.
“We are about to start developing our asset with about 200 billion cubic feet of gas at the Ibom field. We intend to convert some of the gas processed out of that facility to support the local market.
“It is capital intensive doing gas infrastructure and government needs to encourage private investors so that private people can come in with funds and equipment to get the value.
“In the electricity sector today, the major issues are the shortage of gas and the pricing of gas; those are things that the government has to help us to look at,” Mr Olujimi stated.
He disclosed that the shortage of foreign exchange was also a major challenge in the business but pointed out that the company had the support of the NNPC and it could produce its gas locally.
The company’s CEO noted that besides supporting the local LPG market, the Emadeb Group would also support gas for power.
According to him, the country’s population would have exceeded 300million in the next 10 years and it would be necessarily to serve the estimated 60 per cent of Nigerians that will be using LPG.
He said he was fulfilled that Emadeb group “is bringing in clean energy especially to the market and actually to the Abuja market. The environment here is where Abuja lives. The vast population in Abuja is within this vicinity (Lokogoma, Gaduwa, Apo, etc) and that is why we have invested this much here.
“For us, this is a model that we want to build in the downstream industry. Everybody knows the importance of cooking. We all eat food and we have decided to do this as a model for clean energy in Abuja.
“That is why we are here today; we have looked at that when we conceptualized this investment. It is 120 tonnes LPG storage.
“We have looked at this entire neighbourhood where we have about 56 estates with a minimum of 1000 households living on each estate. We looked at this that it is a good business in terms of return on investment and clean energy.
“Everybody knows the importance of LPG and we want to, in every way, ensure a clean environment in terms of retailing LPG and at the same time being able to serve the public in a very conducive environment and this is why we have conceptualized this.
“This project (plant) only serves barely less than two-thirds of the people in this environment: Lokogoma, Gaduwa, Apo Districts and all the estates around here. We decided to say let us take a model here and see how that works.”
“We want to see how we can get domestication of gas with the so much resources that we have on the ground in order to bring it up to the market locally.
“So, we don’t have to export all our handlings and so that Nigerian masses will be able to buy cheap and better LPG in the market.
“This is our model and within the next year and a half, we intend to do this in six locations across the country.”
By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session of the week on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited ended in the green territory on Monday, with a 1.20 per cent rise.
This was buoyed by the gains recorded by Airtel Africa and other equities, according to analysis of data harvested from the Customs Street yesterday.
During the trading day, the consumer goods index grew by 0.76 per cent, enough to offset the losses recorded by the other sectors.
The insurance counter shrank by 1.64 per cent, the banking space lost 0.24 per cent, the energy sector contracted by 0.09 per cent, and the industrial goods segment retreated by 0.05 per cent.
When trading activities ended for the day, the All-Share Index (ASI) was up by 2,956.15 points to 248,529.75 points from 245,573.60 points, and the market capitalisation gained N1.909 trillion to finish at N160.422 trillion compared with the previous session’s N158.513 trillion.
Fortis Global Insurance expanded by 10.00 per cent to N2.86, Chams surged by 9.80 per cent to N4.48, NAHCO jumped by 9.29 per cent to N153.00, Airtel Africa soared by 8.59 per cent to N6,300.00, and Sovereign Trust Insurance rose by 6.59 per cent to N1.78.
Conversely, AVA Capital shed 10.00 per cent to N9.90, Ecobank decreased by 9.92 per cent to N64.95, Caverton crashed by 9.09 per cent to N5.00, Ikeja Hotel slipped by 8.41 per cent to N43.00, and FTN Cocoa dropped 8.37 per cent to trade at N8.10.
A total of 23 equities were on the gainers’ chart yesterday, while 37 equities ended on the losers’ table, indicating a negative market breadth index and weak investor sentiment.
As for the activity log, the trading volume remained elevated, though lower than the preceding session, as it receded by 26.67 per cent to 1.1 billion units from 1.5 billion units. The trading value, however, increased by 1.12 per cent to N27.0 billion from N26.7 billion, while the number of deals advanced by 39.00 per cent to 59,185 deals from 42,580 deals.
Consolidated Hallmark was the most active stock yesterday, with a turnover of 354.1 million units valued at N1.5 billion, Fortis Global Insurance traded 307.3 million units worth N818.3 million, Access Holdings exchanged 48.1 million units for N1.4 billion, Chams transacted 37.4 million units worth N163.3 million, and First Holdco sold 35.8 million units valued at N5.1 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices traded 5 per cent higher on Monday after Iran and the United States argued about demands for compensation, further stalling a possible deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude futures chalked up $4.17 or 4.99 per cent to sell at $87.72 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures surged $3.95 or 5.05 per cent to $82.13 per barrel.
Iran said the US must lift sanctions on it and meet other conditions for reopening the vital waterway, which carried a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas before the start of the Middle East conflict in late February.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Iran must pay compensation for “all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded.”
This comes as the Middle East country said it was nearing a final pact with Oman to define new shipping lanes through the strait but repeated that the US must meet other conditions, including compensation and an end to sanctions and military threats before the strategic waterway is reopened.
In a further threat to supply, the Iran-aligned Houthis said they had struck Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery on Sunday. Saudi Aramco has postponed the restart of the 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery to August 30 after two Houthi attacks in recent weeks.
ADNOC, a state-owned oil company in the United Arab Emirates, said on Friday that 15 of its vessels had been attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the conflict.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military continued to attack Russia’s energy infrastructure, hitting the Taneco oil refinery in Tatarstan and the ZapSibNeftekhim petrochemical plant in Russia’s Tyumen region.
On the US supply side, stocks of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell by about 6.1 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels last week, the lowest level since January 1983.
Bank of America (BoFA) warned that oil prices could continue climbing into the winter if the US and Iran fail to reach an agreement reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with severe shortages already emerging in diesel, petrol, and global natural gas markets.
Mr Francisco Blanch, Bank of America’s head of commodities and derivatives research, told CNBC on Monday that only around 5 to 10 ships per day are currently passing through Hormuz, compared with roughly 140 before the war. With some crude now being rerouted through Saudi Arabia and the UAE, traffic would need to recover to around 80 to 100 ships per day just to stabilise energy markets.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions has called for stronger collaboration among financial sector regulators and other stakeholders to strengthen Nigeria’s financial system and support sustainable economic growth.
The committee made the call during an expanded stakeholders’ engagement in Lagos, attended by the leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), among other industry stakeholders and financial experts.
Chairman of the committee, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East), who was represented by Mr Osita Izunaso (Imo West), said stronger legislative reforms and regulatory collaboration were necessary to reposition Nigeria’s financial architecture for long-term economic prosperity.
Mr Abiru said the financial sector remained critical to investment, job creation, business expansion and macroeconomic stability, stressing that its ability to mobilise savings, channel credit to productive sectors, facilitate investment and manage risks was fundamental to sustainable economic growth.
He said the current economic realities required closer collaboration between the legislature and financial regulators, noting that challenges confronting the sector were interconnected and could not be effectively addressed through isolated interventions.
The lawmaker identified inflationary pressures, global economic uncertainties, cybersecurity threats, low insurance penetration and the need to diversify Nigeria’s export base as some of the challenges requiring coordinated policy responses.
He said the engagement was aimed at generating practical solutions to strengthen the country’s financial architecture and support sustainable economic growth.
According to him, monetary policy, financial safety nets, banking institutions, the insurance industry and export finance were interdependent components of a stable financial system and must therefore be strengthened collectively.
The Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Olusegun Ayo Omosehin, said the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025 had contributed significantly to stabilising and repositioning the insurance sector.
Mr Omosehin disclosed that 43 insurance companies had successfully recapitalised, describing the development as a major milestone for the industry.
He commended Abiru and members of the committee for their role in advancing insurance sector reforms and urged the House of Representatives to expedite action on the relevant insurance reform bill to enable it to receive presidential assent and become operational.
Representatives of the CBN Governor and the Managing Directors of AMCON, NEXIM and NDIC also commended the Senate committee for its oversight and legislative support, saying its interventions had strengthened the agencies’ capacity to discharge their statutory mandates.
The engagement, held under the theme, Strengthening Financial System Architecture for Sustainable Economic Growth and Stability in Nigeria, also featured presentations by Professor Uche Uwaleke, President of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria (CMAN); Professor Biodun Adedipe, Chief Consultant, B. Adedipe Associates Limited; and Dr Tilewa Adebajo, Chief Executive Officer of CFG Advisory.
The experts presented policy recommendations on key issues affecting Nigeria’s financial system, with emphasis on financial stability, investment and sustainable economic growth.
Mr Abiru said the Senate would continue to engage financial regulators and other stakeholders to deepen financial inclusion, strengthen public confidence in financial institutions and improve regulatory effectiveness.
He said the broader objective was to position Nigeria’s financial system to compete more effectively in the global economy while remaining resilient and responsive to the country’s economic transformation agenda.
