Litro Gas Lanka Limited and Laugfs Gas PLC, the two largest suppliers of LP Gas in Sri Lanka, resumed the supply of LP Gas yesterday, December 6, conforming to the guidelines of the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA).
The two companies had agreed to this following a discussion held yesterday with State Minister of Co-operative Services, Marketing Development and Consumer Protection, Lasantha Alagiyawanna.
State Minister Alagiyawanna said, “There has been a number of explosions and injuries because of these gas cylinders and we took decisions to prevent these. This is a national calamity and we have to address these issues professionally and scientifically”.
He also said that there were a large number of cylinders which were imported which were the required standard.
“We have decided to stop the release of the cylinders which are below the standards to the market,” he said.
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has now confirmed that the latest cylinders which have been imported have been up to the required standards.
“The inclusion of all the required chemicals for the cylinders are also mandatory. The other matter is that 1 in every 1000 cylinders have to be checked for their pressure,” the State Minister remarked.
The Consumer Affairs Authority yesterday gave its approval to release liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to the market under three conditions.
In a statement, the CAA’s Chairman, Major General (Rtd.) Shantha Dissanayake said the gas samples collected under the supervision of the Committee appointed to monitor the two ships that imported LPG stocks along with the Industrial Technology Institute, Sri Lanka Standards Institution and CAA, were referred to the laboratory of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).
Accordingly, based on the CPC’s test reports and the recommendations of the relevant Technical Committee, a decision was taken to commence distribution of domestic gas with effect from December 5 under the following three conditions:
Not releasing previously imported LP gas stocks to the market, Adding Mercaptan (also known as methanethiol) to new stocks before they are released to the market, enabling the consumers to identify any leaks by its odorant and Testing one per every 100 gas cylinders during the manufacturing process, serializing and producing them to the CAA.
The gas companies are required to make the Technical Committee aware of the fulfillment of these requirements before releasing the products to the market, in order to ensure quality.
The companies should allow the said Committee to monitor the gas manufacturing process at any given moment, the statement noted.
The CAA further stated that ships carrying LP gas have been anchored at the Colombo Port and that samples tested from all ships comply with the required standards.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Committee appointed on the instructions of the President to investigate and resolve gas cylinder fires yesterday said so far their investigations have revealed that out of the 458 complaints 244 were related to gas leakages.
The Committee issuing a statement on the investigation so far said that they had instructed the production companies to include Ethyl Mercaptan in appropriate and recommended proportions.
The Committee said it had identified lack of smell to identify gas leakages as a major issue related to accidents and had advised on the above measure.
Also the committee said another reason for the accidents was the low quality accessories such as regulators, tubes and damages to ovens.
The committee said it had observed a significant reduction in accidents in recent times and added this could be due to public making necessary upgrades to their gas oven accessories following awareness in this regard.
The Committee said scientific investigations were still ongoing to determine whether any changes to the composition of the gas had resulted in the accidents.
The committee said gas cylinders which will be made following a thorough inspection by all relevant authorities will be released to the market in future with a special emblem for identification purposes.
