Backlog of the LPG cylinders in the country would be over by 15th December

Union Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Shri Murli Deora has said that the backlog of the LPG cylinders in the country would be over by 15th December. Shri Deora held a review meeting in Mumbai with representatives of IOC, BPCL and HPCL to discuss the ways to remove the shortage of LPG in the country. Addressing a press conference, the Union Minister said the shortage is due to due to the disruption in supply in select regions, strikes and shortage of the LPG in the international markets. Additional Secretary in the Ministry Shri Sudhir Bhargava said that the shortage is because of a sudden increase in demand and relative constant domestic production of LPG. “Due to a combination of festive season, unseasonal rains in many parts of the country, and onset of winter in north India, some States are experiencing a backlog in LPG supplies, raging from 4 to 10 days, Panic-booking by customers in some parts is adding to the burden’” he added.




LPG is currently a deficit product and is being partly imported from abroad. This is because, while indigenous availability has gone up from 7.6 million tones in 2005-06 to 10.2 million tones in 2010-11, the demand has grown at a much faster pace, and is projected to reach 13.96 million tones in the current year. Accordingly, the country will be importing 3.9 million tones, or 32% of its LPG requirements, in the current year.



The oil marketing companies are going all-out to clear the backlog and restore normalcy at the earliest through a multi-pronged action plan. For improved bulk product availability, apart from additional imports, several emergency measures, such as use of very large gas carriers (VLGC), on-board-blending of propane & butane and ship-to-ship transfer, are being resorted to. Several other measures have been put in place to normalize LPG availability across the country, such as stretched utilization of LPG pipelines, additional movement of bilk product by road to deficit markets, continuous operation of bulk receipt/loading sources and bottling plants even on Sundays and holidays, etc. In addition, inventories at the plants are also being fully utilized to clear the backlog in supply of domestic cylinder, and bottling too has been maximized at the plants. Courtesy: MOPNG
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