Govt sits on BPC proposal for LPG price reduction

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s proposal to decrease the price of LPG has been lying with the government for about three weeks while the corporation’s sale of LPG has dropped ‘alarmingly’ because of the high price, forcing the concerned authorities to burn a huge amount of condensate, a raw material used for producing LPG.
Sources in the BPC said that they had forwarded a proposal to the energy ministry for submitting an application to the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission to reduce the price of each cylinder of LPG to around Tk 750-800 from the existing price of Tk 850 in the second week of May.
‘But we are yet to get any green light from the ministry allowing us to submit an application to the BERC to reduce the price of LPG,’ said a high official of the BPC on Tuesday.
Sources in the energy ministry said that after getting BPC’s proposal, the ministry recommended further cut of the price of LPG to around Tk 700 per cylinder, and sent the proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office one week back for the approval of the premier, Sheikh Hasina, who is in charge of this ministry.
‘Once we get the prime minister’s nod for price cut, BPC will be asked to submit the application to the BERC,’ said a source in the ministry.
The BPC’s sale of LPG has dropped steadily over the last three months as the private companies have reduced their price to around Tk 750 following the slump of oil prices in the international market.
The energy ministry in May asked the BPC to put forward the price cut proposal after the movement of petrol-pump owners and dealers in the greater Sylhet region who are demanding cut in the price of LPG.
Authorities of Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd, meanwhile, have been burning a huge quantity of condensate — liquefied natural gas extracted from the gas-field as a by-product — as the bottling of LPG at the Koilashtila plant of the BPC’s subsidiary, LP The Rupantarito Prakritik Gas Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the Petrobangla, collects around 70,000-1,00,000 litres of condensate from four gas-fields of the Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd per day and produces around 30,000 litres of LPG and 50,000-60,000 litres of petrol at the Koilashtila NGL Fractionation Plant.
The LP Gas Ltd of BPC usually bottles LPG after collecting it from the RPGCL, but for the last three weeks the latter has stopped producing LPG because of the drop in BPC’s sales. The authorities of the Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd are forced to burn around 30 per cent of the total condensate as there are no facilities to store such a huge amount.
A high official of the BERC, while talking to New Age, expressed resentment over the government’s delay in sending the proposal to lower the price of LPG.
‘The BERC asked the energy ministry earlier to take steps to reduce the LPG price after we came to know of the burning the condensate. But we are yet to get any proposal. This delay is mysterious as the private companies are ultimately getting the benefits as the BPC’s sale of LPG has dropped,’ link....