The Liquefied Petroleum Gas Retailers (LPGAR), branch of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Friday urged multinational companies to focus on the production of LPG materials such as cylinders, cookers, hoses and burners clips.
Its National Chairman, Mr Michael Umudu, said in Lagos that the LPG sector was in dire need of genuine products to enhance safety of distribution and usage in Nigeria.
Umudu alleged that the regulatory agencies had been given preferential treatment to the multinationals in finding solutions to the issues affecting the industry.
He said: “A situation where privileged ones are consulted and their input used to determine what affects others is not good for the system.
“They should realise that there is equally what I can call ‘commercial war’ in the sector.
“It is only in Nigeria that you see a multinational scrambling for a space in the street to retail LPG with medium and small scale retailers.
“These multinationals and large indigenous LPG companies should invest in production of LPG and materials such as cylinders, cookers and hoses.”
According to him, the government should encourage such investments instead of focusing totally on eradicating illegal LPG retailers.
He said that the claim that LPG retailers are the major problem affecting the sector was false, noting that all hands must be on deck for sanity to be restored in the industry.
Umudu said LPGAR would continue to sensitise its members and the general public to safe LPG usage to prevent cases of gas explosion which had been on the rise in recent times.
