From rxpgnews.com
No LPG supply crisis, assures minister
By Indo Asian News Service,
Nov 24, 2006 - 2:26:01 AM
New Delhi, Nov 23 - The government Thursday assured the Lok Sabha that there was no crisis due to any shortage of liquefied petroleum gas - in the country as the state-owned oil companies were stepping up production and imports.
'At present, there is no overall shortage of LPG in the country and LPG supplies to distributors are being made by the public sector oil marketing companies - through indigenous production,' Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply in the lower house of parliament.
The minister said imports had been stepped up in accordance with the genuine demand of customers registered with the LPG distributors.
'At present, there is a deficit of LPG from indigenous sources in the country and therefore LPG imports have been arranged to meet the total demand of LPG in the country,' he said.
Parliament was informed that OMCs had reported a backlog of two to eight days in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu due to various factors including unplanned shutdown of refineries, transporters' strike, bad road conditions and riots in Mangalore.
No complaint, however, has been received from the state governments about any LPG crisis, the minister clarified.
Patel said the OMCs had been advised to liquidate the backlog in bookings in these states by operating the bottling plants for more hours and also during holidays.
On efforts being made to raise the LPG production in the country, the minister stated that in addition to the capacity expansion of the existing refineries, three new refineries were being set up at Bina, Bhatinda and Paradip.
Together, these efforts would add 30 million tonnes per annum - of refining capacity in the country, which is currently 134 million tonnes.
The LPG production is estimated to increase to 12.763 MMT by 2012 from 7.717 MMT at the end of fiscal 2005-06.
India permits use of LPG for automobiles besides domestic and industrial uses.
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