The LPG Marketing Companies Association of Ghana, has said that their decision to suspend the sale of LPG product to consumers is indefinite.
The Association said it cannot provide information on when its members are to resume work due to the technical nature of their planned installation assessment.
[contextly_sidebar id=”GmBOBQk6s6d3rnqyJJlu3WUGV7YU8SAX”]Members of the Association have suspended work supposedly for major maintenance works on their stations nationwide.
The Association’s members, some of who shutdown from Wednesday, October 19, has not indicated when it will allow members resume regular operations.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, the spokesperson for the LPG Marketing Companies Association of Ghana, Kwame Owiredu, said, “We put up a technical team and we gave them the mandate to check the integrity of our installations as well as issues associated with delivery so we are hoping that they come out with their result as to what they found. It is a technical issue so we didn’t place timelines, and we are hoping that the technical people will do their jobs as soon as possible so that we get past this whole thing.”
The situation is expected to take a serious toll on consumers who would have to wait for the companies to resume before they can refill their cylinders.
Restaurants, bakeries and other businesses that rely on gas are also likely to be negatively affected by the development.
Some have accused the LPG Marketers of undertaking the move against the government due to the latter’s plans to reintroduce the gas re-circulation program, and also close down high-risk fuel stations.
But Mr.Owiredu told Richard Sky on Eyewitness News that, “we are not undertaking this exercise to fight the government or our way of resenting to whatever directive might have come from the government. We believe that public safety is supreme and important, and as much as we know that those who patronize our gas will face some difficulty in accessing gas, their safety is also very important.”
He noted that, although some gas stations are yet to implement the decision, the Association is optimistic that by noon on Thursday, the companies would have fully complied.
Cylinder re-circulation program
The government’s decision to introduce the cylinder re-circulation program, comes after a gas explosion at Atomic junction in Accra, that killed at least 7 people and injured over 130 others.
Following the incident, President Akufo-Addo as part of a 9-point cabinet decision directed stakeholders to implement the cylinder re-circulation program within a year.
As part of the program, consumers will buy cylinder bottles already filled with gas and will not need to refill themselves at designated stations.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana