L.P.G. shortage to ease soon

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 3

L.P.G. shortage to ease soon

The national liquefied petroleum gas shortage should begin to ease almost immediately — but there will only be enough for existing users. .

Mr J. S. Campbell, thei general manager of Rockgas, Ltd, a major distributor of L.P.G., said in Wellington yesterday that he had been advised that gas production at Kapuni was now back to full strength and that the acute shortage of gas would soon ease.

The shortage over the last six weeks was due mainly to one-third of the plant at Kapuni being shut down at the beginning of . March for maintenance surveys, which have to be done at least once a year, plus some breakdown problems on top of this. These production problems had reduced the output at Kapuni to as little as 16 tonnes a day instead of 40 tonnes a day. “This is a ludicrous situation in terms of our ability to meet requirements,” Mr Campbell said. “All our bulk tanks have been virtually. bone dry, in both the North and South Islands. When you consider that one stor-i age tank would take 20 tonnes of gas and there was only 16 tonnes a day being produced on some days, you can understand the problem.”

Production, which had been down to 2500 tonnes a year, had been restored to 13,000. tonnes a year, -“the most they can squeeze out of the plant” Depending on shipping space, the South Island should start to feel the new injection of gas almost immediately, and by July there should be “a significant easing of acute shortages." In Christchurch, the shortage was getting desperate. The South Island manager of Rockgas (Mr R. J. Boyce) said the last five months or so had been very difficult for the company, which is the main South Island distributor.

“We try to give everybody a wee bit with preference to hospitals and industry, especially where men would have to be put off through a lack of gas,” he said. Vehicle owners came at the bottom of the list of prior-] ities, because they could use petrol. I Farmers with grain driers in South Canterbury and .Central Otago had also suffered because of the shortage. “It would probably take a good 100 tonnes for us to 'catch up on the backlog,” Mr Boyce said. The National Union of Railwaymen in Christchurch is also concerned about the shortages. The union’s national president (Mr G. Finlayson) said yesterday that if something was not done soon, the local branch of the union would meet to discuss some action on the matter.

The two things which worried railwaymen were cold guards' vans and cold meals on the Southerner express between Christchurch and Invercargill Mr Finlay-

son said that for the last two months, travellers on the Southerner had been able to get only “cold collations” instead of hot meals because of the L.P.G. shortage.

“We have to carry boiling water in a multi-pot to give them even a cup of tea,” he said. He said he had received several complaints from passengers about the lack of hot food. L.P.G. was also used for heating trains and guards vans. “These vans can become very cold at 4 o’clock jin the morning,” he said. No train had been stopped because of the shortage, but as winter progressed this could change.

1 “My people are reasonable people,” he said. “They have accepted certain situations over the last two months .whereas they could have 'said that in the interests of (safety and comfort, the vans were not going to run. We I are trying to do our best but it is a hopeless situation. If something doesn’t happen soon, the South Island (railways) will shut down.” In spite of the predicted easing of the L.P.G. shortage, Rockgas said there would still be a shortage of L.P.G., because since the oil crisis began demand had outstripped supply. Mr Campbell said the crisis had led to a “ludicrous price situation” where L.P.G. could be obtained at half the price of; petrol in the North Island and at a comparable price to petrol in the South Island, “if you could get it.” People were still converting their cars to L.P.G. nonetheless, even though ho gas was available for them to run on.