In a major blow to the hospitality sector and industries, the Central government has banned the use of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) commercial cylinders for hotels, restaurants and industries from Thursday. Domestic cooking gas LPG cylinders will continue to be available for households though supplies are reported to be under strain.
The Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has also banned supply of LPG to private bottling companies like Reliance, Essar, Go Gas, etc. LPG will be sold by only public sector oil companies including IOC, HPCL and BPCL. The order will remain in force till further directions from the Ministry.
The order issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas states that all oil refining companies operating in India shall maximise and ensure that Propane and Butane produced or available with them is utilised for production of LPG only and this should be made available solely to IOC, HPCL and BPCL. The order further states that the public sector oil companies will supply LPG to consumers for domestic use only.
Sources in oil companies told Lokmat Times that most of LPG is imported by India from Gulf countries where the war is on. "India produces some LPG of its own and imports some of it from non-Gulf countries but that is not enough to meet our needs. Hence, the government has banned commercial use of LPG," said an official requesting anonymity.
The situation on the compressed natural gas (CNG) front is not bad because most of CNG is produced domestically. CNG has replaced wherever it is available because it is cheaper and safer.
However, parts of the country don't have CNG supply most industrial sectors may suffer at large if they are dependent on LPG for operations.
Sources indicated that though bottled LPG is supplied to consumers in Maharashtra there are some parts in the country where piped domestic gas is available. If such supplies are through a privately owned entity, these specific domestic gas consumers may also face trouble till the time the shortage lasts and curbs are retained.
Domestic gas is subsidised and comes in 14.2 kg lower pressure cylinders, commercial cylinders on the other hand have 19 to 47.5 kg of high pressure gas and are bigger in size.