Cooking gas prices in Nigeria have remained at punishing levels, hovering around ₦2,500 per kilogramme, as a widening gap between domestic supply and rising demand threatens years of progress in clean energy adoption and pushes many households back to firewood and charcoal.
The price, which has more than doubled in about three years, reflects deep structural problems in the liquefied petroleum gas market, including inadequate infrastructure, foreign exchange volatility, limited storage capacity, high transportation costs and a gas export regime that has historically prioritised foreign buyers over domestic consumers.
Across the country, households are already adjusting to the pressure by cutting down on the quantity of gas they buy or switching partly to cheaper but dirtier cooking fuels.
“I used to refill my 12.5kg cylinder every month, but now it is too expensive,” said Folake Afolabi, a resident of Agege in Lagos. “We have gone back to using charcoal for most of our cooking because it is what we can afford.”
Another Nigerian, identified as Olowookere, said on X that he had to buy only 2kg of gas in his 12kg cylinder because he could not expose his asthmatic wife to the health risks of charcoal smoke.
“I had to buy 2kg of gas inside my 12kg cylinder because I cannot risk the life of my asthmatic wife in the name of using charcoal for cooking,” he said.
In Akure, Ondo State, an interior decorator, Toheeb Agbabiaka, said he was surprised to see some LPG retailers selling charcoal alongside cooking gas, an indication that consumers are increasingly combining both fuels to survive rising energy costs.
“The last time I went to refill my cylinder, I saw the fuel station attendant also selling charcoal,” Agbabiaka said.
“Many Akure residents now buy charcoal to make up for the shortfall in the quantity of gas they can afford. Instead of filling an entire cylinder, they buy smaller quantities of gas and supplement with charcoal.”
Agbabiaka said he had also increased his use of an electric cooker to reduce dependence on LPG, although unstable power supply had created another burden.
“I wake up at midnight sometimes to cook for the day because power supply is also not stable,” he said.
Data obtained from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission showed that in the first two months of the year, about 62 percent of Nigeria’s total gas output was exported, leaving only about 38 percent for the domestic market.
Industry operators say the imbalance has become more damaging because Nigeria’s domestic LPG market has expanded significantly, with millions of urban and semi-urban households now relying on cooking gas for daily meals.
An industry analyst, who asked not to be named because of regulatory sensitivities, said Nigeria’s export-first gas structure was created at a time when many households were not using LPG for cooking.
“This lopsided supply structure was in place during the years when most Nigerians were not using gas for cooking,” the analyst said. “But those days are gone. The domestic market has grown significantly, and the same export-first bias is now destabilising prices and access for ordinary consumers.”
According to an industry report titled Nigeria LPG Production & Supply Matrix (2023–2026), national consumption of cooking gas rose by 20 percent from 1.5 million metric tonnes in 2023 to an estimated 1.8 million metric tonnes in 2026.
However, estimated national supply stood at only between 1.55 million and 1.65 million metric tonnes within the same period, creating a gap of at least 150,000 metric tonnes. The shortfall is now being absorbed through higher prices rather than increased supply.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which entered the LPG supply chain in recent years, has added meaningful domestic output and helped shift the market away from historic dependence on imports and Nigeria LNG Limited.
The report noted that the LPG market had undergone a major structural transformation between 2023 and 2026, with growing contributions from domestic gas-processing plants, inland gas processors and NNPC-linked facilities.
Despite these improvements, the additional supply has not been enough to bring down retail prices because distribution infrastructure remains a major bottleneck in the downstream energy sector.
