Kathmandu, October 27

Following increased demand of cooking gas in the domestic market in recent years, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottlers have circulated almost 1.5 million units of additional LPG cylinders in the market in the last one-and-a-half years.

This means that the total number of LPG cylinders has crossed 7.7 million units in the market, according to officials of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). According to the earlier data prepared by NOC in mid-2014, LPG bottlers had circulated altogether 6.26 million units of LPG cylinders.

“We are in the process of collecting new data from gas industries. However, our rough calculation shows that almost 1.5 million units of new LPG cylinders have been introduced in the market by gas bottlers in the last one-and-a-half years,” said Deepak Baral, LPG director of NOC, adding that though LPG consumption in the country is growing at an annual rate of 10 per cent, LPG demand soared aggressively after the supply disruptions last year.

In a bit to ease the scarcity, NOC had started providing only half-filled gas cylinders in the market so that maximum number of consumers could procure cooking fuel. This distribution system required more number of cylinders and bottlers introduced new cylinders accordingly.

Taking advantage of the situation, some bottlers had even introduced new LPG cylinders without seeking permission from NOC.

The data maintained by NOC two years ago shows that LPG bottlers and dealers had two million units of LPG cylinders each. Around 2.6 million units of LPG cylinders were with consumers.

Similarly, monthly consumption of LPG in Nepal, which stood at around 23,000 metric tonnes two years earlier, has reached 29,000 metric tonnes at present.