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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has blamed the recent scarcity and sudden hike in the price of cooking gas across the country on the strike action embarked upon by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Bayo Ojulari, disclosed this on Sunday while briefing State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Lagos.

Ojulari explained that the industrial action, which lasted several days, temporarily halted operations and disrupted loading activities, leading to a short-term supply gap and what he described as an “artificial” surge in prices.

“The increase you saw was relatively artificial because for the period of the strike, movements and loading were delayed by about two, three days,” Ojulari said.

“And because of that, you see that impact. As things return back to normal, it takes some time for distribution to be fully restored,” he added.

The NNPCL boss further accused some retailers of taking advantage of the temporary disruption to increase prices beyond normal levels.

“As you know, in Nigeria, people take opportunity. With that delay, some of the people who had existing resources and reserves had to put up the price,” he noted.

Ojulari, however, assured Nigerians that the situation is being addressed and that prices are expected to stabilise as supply chains recover fully.

“My expectation is that now that things are back to normal, prices should return to what they were before the strike,” he stated.

Oil workers under the aegis of PENGASSAN had on September 26 embarked on a nationwide strike over the dismissal of Nigerian workers by the Dangote Refinery. The strike, however, was suspended on October 1 following the intervention of the Federal Government.