The latest report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown that the average price of refilling a 5kg cylinder of cooking gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) decreased to N1995.38 in June 2019, from N2,028.04 in May.
Similarly, the report revealed that the average price per litre of diesel (automotive gas oil) decreased to N224.69 in June 2019 from N228.02 recorded in the previous month. This decrease represents a 1.46% fall month-on-month, while it rose by 9.62% year-on-year.
Lastly, the average price per litre of Kerosene in Nigeria increased by 0.17% to N316.43 in June 2019, from N315.91 recorded in the month of May.
Price breakdown across states: In the month of June, gas, diesel and kerosene sold at different prices across most states in Nigeria, while some states did not witness any price change.
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Price of Kerosene in the month of June shows that some of the states in the country sold Kerosene at high prices, while consumers in others enjoyed relatively low prices of Kerosene commodity.
- The average price of Kerosene was highest in Anambra (N381.25), Abia, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom (N356.67) and Enugu (N352.78) States.
- Kwara (N254.17), Abuja (N250.00) and Benue (N249.83) enjoyed the lowest average price per litre of kerosene during the month of June.
Price of diesel was highest in States such as Borno (N266.67), Taraba (N250.00) and Abuja (N239.00). On the other hand, Bayelsa (N204.17), Nasarawa (N196.91) and Plateau (N183.33) recorded the lowest average price of diesel.
Cooking Gas was sold at the highest prices in Adamawa (N2,485.00), Bauchi (N2,450.00) and Borno (N2,407.14). Basically, consumers in these states paid the highest average price for refilling a 5kg cylinder for cooking gas.
However, Consumers in Ebonyi (N1,732.50), Enugu (N1,702.86) and Abuja (N1,700.00) paid the lowest average price for the refilling of a 5kg cylinder for cooking gas.
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Price breakdown across zones: The average price for refilling 5kg of cooking gas was highest in North East Zone (N2316.38), followed by South-South (N1994.34), North West (N1948.20), North Central (N1922.76), South West (N1899.40) and South East (N1894.29).
- Also, South East Zone maintained the highest average price of Kerosene at N358.35 per litre, South-South (N328.38), South West (N326.48), North West (N316.46) North East (N315.97) and North Central (N267.99).
- In the same vein, the average price paid by consumers for per litre of diesel was highest in North East (N215.82), followed by the North West (N211.24), South West (N204.75), South East (N199.64), North Central (N197.77) and South-South (N195.87).
Price of gas may further drop: The slight drop in the price of gas may be the first of many to come and this is probably traceable to recent development in the sector. More investors are coming into the oil and gas sector and this may further drive down the prices.
For instance, Shell Nigeria Gas recently completed a gas plant facility, “Agbara-Ota Capacity Increase Project” in Ogun State, Nigeria.
Upshots: For the average Nigerian, the burden of the high cost of these household necessities will heap more misery in terms of costs incurred. This, in turn, would reduce their purchasing power. Hence, the slight drop in the prices of diesel and gas mean individuals and firms can buy more, which means more revenue for firms in the industry.
[READ FURTHER: Shell completes another world-class gas plant in Nigeria]
