Cooking gas has gone up again. Why, and what should a refill cost?

If your last gas refill cost more than the one before, you are not imagining it. Wholesale cooking gas prices in Lagos rose sharply in the last days of October.

What happened

Between Friday 30 October and Monday 2 November, most gas depots in Lagos raised their prices by ₦140 to ₦200 a kilo, according to figures from the pricing platform PetroleumPrice.ng reported by Legit.ng.

Here is where the main Lagos depots stood on 3 November, per kilo:

• Navgas: ₦1,450, up from ₦1,250 (16 per cent)
• NIPCO: ₦1,390, up from ₦1,225
• 11Plc: ₦1,390, up from ₦1,225
• Rain Oil: ₦1,370, up from ₦1,200
• Techno Oil: ₦1,370, up from ₦1,200
• Dangote refinery: ₦1,050, up from ₦1,025

Dangote is the clear exception. It rose only ₦25 and is now ₦400 a kilo cheaper than Navgas.

What does that mean for my cylinder?

These are depot prices. Your retailer pays them, then adds the cost of trucking, running the refill point and a profit margin.

At depot prices alone, the gas in a 12.5kg cylinder works out at:

• about ₦13,125 at Dangote's ₦1,050
• about ₦17,125 at ₦1,370
• about ₦18,125 at Navgas's ₦1,450

What you pay at your local refill point will be higher. Legit.ng worked out that at a retail price of ₦1,400 a kilo, a 12.5kg refill would be about ₦17,500, and at ₦1,600 about ₦20,000. It said these were illustrations, not checked shop prices.

Why do prices keep going up?

The short answer is that more people want gas than the market is supplying easily.

Nigeria uses more cooking gas every year as families switch from kerosene and firewood. Legit.ng, citing the downstream regulator NMDPRA, reported that daily supply reached about 4.5 million litres in September, up 17.78 per cent on a year earlier. Our earlier story on gas supply.

Dangote's lower price shows what more local supply can do. Gas made at home avoids import costs and the exchange rate. But one plant cannot supply the whole country.

The cost of going back to firewood

Higher prices push some families away from gas. Ewah Eleri, who chairs the board of trustees of the Nigerian Alliance for Clean Cooking, said families were "abandoning their gas cylinders in favour of fuelwood". He was speaking at the Nigeria Clean Cooking Forum in Abuja, Legit.ng reported, citing the Guardian.

Cooking with firewood indoors fills the home with smoke, which harms lungs, especially for women and children who spend most time near the fire.

What it means for you

Ask your retailer which depot their gas comes from. Retailers who buy from cheaper depots should be able to sell for less.

Compare a few refill points before you buy, since the depot gap shows prices can differ by hundreds of naira a kilo. And check the scale: make sure you are getting the full weight you pay for.