Demand for gas cylinders sees decline on Wednesday — stakeholders

AMMAN — The demand for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) decreased from 250,000 cylinders on Tuesday to 180,000 cylinders on Wednesday, according to Head of the Petrol Stations and Gas Distributing Agencies Owners Association Nahar Saeedat.

Media spokesperson for the Jordanian Petroleum Refinery Company (JoPetrol) Haider Bashaira said that the demand for gas from gas distribution agencies also fell from 210,000 gas cylinders on Tuesday to 168,000 cylinders on Wednesday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra reported.

All gas distribution agencies and vehicles continued providing citizens with their usual cooking gas needs on Wednesday, as the commodity is available in “large stocks” at JoPetrol as well as through distributing agencies.

Saeedat stressed that the decrease in demand for cooking gas is due to its availability in “large and sufficient quantities” at stations and agencies, adding that loading operations from JoPetrol’s filling stations are being carried out as usual.

He noted that the association constantly monitors the process of supplying citizens with cooking gas to ensure that it is distributed during the working hours specified by the government under the curfew.

On Tuesday, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Hala Zawati announced that all gas distribution agencies and vehicles in the Kingdom are exempt from the curfew.

The Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission follows up on the sector’s situation, citizens’ complaints and the extent to which filling centres, gas depots, gas distribution agencies and central gas distribution tanks adhere to the licences granted to them.

According to JoPetrol data, large stocks of liquefied gas are available at various refinery branches.

Additionally, ships loaded with LPG  were contracted for supply during March and April, which will raise JoPetrol’s stock of liquefied gas to "reassuring levels sufficient to meet the requirements of the local market for long periods", according to the data.

The demand for LPG rose to “unprecedented levels” to reach 1,464,000 cylinders during the past seven days, according to Zawati.

The demand on Wednesday reached more than 230,000 cylinders, while the average daily consumption rate during the winter ranges between 120,000 and 160,000 cylinders.

Additionally, a total of 56 Petrol stations that are exempt from the curfew continue to operate normally to provide services and supply fuel for vehicles of the entities that are exempted from the curfew.