The Group Chief Executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr Bayo Ojulari, has blamed the recent rise in cooking-gas prices on a temporary disruption to loading and distribution during the strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria.
Ojulari said this while speaking to State House correspondents on Sunday, after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu. According to the NNPC boss, the industrial action halted operations for several days and produced an “artificial” spike in prices.
He said, “The increase you saw was relatively artificial because for the period of the strike, movements and loading were delayed by about two, three days,” he said. “And because of that, you see that impact. As things return to normal, it takes some time for distribution to be fully restored.”
The price surge followed the PENGASSAN industrial action, which was launched over the dismissal of Nigerian workers at the Dangote Refinery and suspended on October 1 after federal government intervention.
“As you know, in Nigeria, people take the opportunity. With that delay, some of the people who had existing resources and reserves had to put up the price.” “I expect that now that things are back to normal, prices should return to what they were before the strike,” he said.