Bulk gas may mean business expansion

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 6

Bulk gas may mean business expansion

Energy reporter Christchurch manufacturers are expected to an nounce significant expansion plans after the assurance: yesterday that regular bulk) distribution of liquefied petroleum gas will start from June, 1981. The Under-Secretary of Energy (Mr Brill) yesterday met representatives of the Christchurch Gas. Coal, Coke, Company. Ltd. and about 15 Christchurch manufacturers who use L.P.G. He told them that Liquegas. a company formed to distribute bulk supplies of L.P.G., would use a tanker to supply a "significant installation" at Lyttelton in about 18 months. The tanker, which may carry between 500 and 1000 tonnes of L.P.G., may be chartered by Liquegas. Mr Brill warned that environmental and industrial considerations had still to be taken into account, although he believed L.P.G. could be handled “very safely.” 1 he director of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association (Mr I. D. Howell) said Mr Brill’s announcement gave Christ-'

church industrial consumers confidence to plan for the future. “There are a number of companies wanting to go ahead with production using ■ L.P.G. If the Government ; firms up, there will be two announcements of quite good expansion for Christchurch,” said Mr Howell. Mr Brill made it clear yesterday that the Government intends to cut gas subsidies over a four-year period from next April. Although the method of phasing out subsidies is subject to each undertaking’s circumstances, there is no chance that the Christchurch Gas Company will be treated as a special case and be allowed to receive subsidies or a longer period. “The decision that they will be phased out at the end of a four-year period is, a firm one,” Mr Brill said. However, the Gas Council,! of which Mr Brill is the chairman, would not allow! any gasworks to close until sufficient alternative fuels' were available to consumers. I However. Mr How'ell said that few companies in central Christchurch would have the space to instal L.P.G. bulk tanks, and there was a possibility that the

Gas Company could remain to provide inner-city supplies of L.P.G. Mr Brill said that market projections for L.P.G. had been made “with some care ’ and the South Island demand should be met with the increased production expected by mid-1981. “The amount of L.P.G. from Kapuni then will be 20.000 tonnes, and from Maui, 25.000 tonnes. Combined. they will mean a 400 per cent increase on present supplies,” said Mr Brill. He said suppliers were still pursuing the possibility of imports from Australia, but Australian suppliers had wanted to tie the price of imports to the world spot market price. That would mean L.P.G. would be landed at a price higher than petrol. he said. Mr Brill also gave an assurance that there would be one bulk price for L.P.G. in New Zealand. A delivery zone would be established around ports with bulk installations and L.P.G. would have to be sold at one price in these zones. “The South Island will not be placed at a disadvantage because of its distance from the sources,” he said.