The strike declared by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) is responsible for the recent increase in cooking gas price, according to Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Ojulari.

Daily Trust reports that the price of gas rose in the past week, subjecting Nigerians to more hardship.

But addressing State House correspondents after visiting President Bola Tinubu, Ojulari said the cooking gas price hike was caused by the disruption of operations during the PENGASSAN strike.

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The union had directed its members to commence strike over the sack of 800 workers of Dangote Refinery, but the issue was resolved after the intervention of the Federal Government.

Ojulari said the industrial action halted loading and distribution for several days, leading to an artificial rise in the price.

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

Ojulari also accused some retailers of taking advantage of the temporary supply disruption to inflate the cooking gas price.

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

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