CPC to produce cheaper domestic gas

Commencing April this year the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation will move into the domestic gas market retailing a cylinder at a much lesser price than the two private sector gas suppliers, Shell and Laugfs, which hold a monopoly now, Petroleum Resources Minister A. H. M. Fowzie said yesterday.

The two private sector monopolies keep increasing domestic LPG according to their whims and fancies inconveniencing the middle class and poorer sector of the population, he said.

The new venture will not import gas but use the by product at the Sapugaskanda Petroleum Refinery to manufacture LPG. Laufgs, too, buys the Sapugaskanda by-product to manufacture LPG.

"We initially hope to capture 10 per cent of the domestic market with the intention of monopolizing it later and with the consumers in mind to sell it at purse easy prices," Fowzie said.

He said an order has already been placed to purchase 50,000 gas cylinders.

Fowzie said the CPC has the necessary resources to be the sole venture, without borrowing from the Treasury or international sources. The feasibility study had already been carried out and the work on the project would commence soon. Consumers could get their cylinder of gas at a lesser price before the forthcoming Sinhala and Tamil New Year, he said.