Bottled gas nearly out

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 6

Bottled gas nearly out

Supplies of bottled gas are all but exhausted in Christchurch and it is doubtful if adequate stocks will be available for the expected Queen’s Birthday week-end rush, according to the general manager of the Christchurch Gas Company (Mr C. W. Kennedy).

“Christchurch has been vir. tually out of gas for three weeks, and the whole of the South Island is being affected. Some distributors may say they have slim supplies, but they will be very slim indeed,” said Mr Kennedy last evening.

The situation was causing some embarrassment to industrial users in Christchurch and domestic users would be affected too, he said. The shortage had been mainly caused by further restrictions being placed on the transportation of the gas by the shipping companies, said Mr Kennedy. Last week, the Union Hobarr was prevented by the Marine division of the Ministry of Transport from carrying two fourtonne tanks of gas from Wellington to Lyttelton because of insufficient deck lashings for the containers. Stricter precautions on shipping the gas had contributed to the shortage, said Mr Kennedy, but he felt that the transportation of L.P.G. was no more dangerous than the carriage of many other products between the North and South Islands. “The whole issue of transporting L.P.G. is a very sensitive one,” Mr Kennedy said. He could not estimate when further supplies of gas would arrive in Christchurch.

Bottled gas is now nonexistent in Greymouth, causing concern to fishermen and carvan owners who rely on it for cooking.