India Scales Down Lpg Import Target Despite Demand

India will import 1.11million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) during 1997-98 against a previous target of 1.65 million tonnes, an official of the Indian Oil Corp said yesterday.

We imported 742,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas during April-December 1997 and we plan to import 368,000 tonnes during January-March 1998, the official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

The official attributed the lower imports to a lack of port and storage facilities. In the 1997-98 oil import blueprint or Oil Economy Budget approved in April 1997, India had projected liquefied petroleum gas imports of 1.65 million tonnes.

Port handling problems were prevalent mainly at the new Pir Pau jetty in Mumbai which can handle only ships with cargo sizes of up to 2,500 tonnes.

 

The other constraint was at the Vizag port terminal in Andhra Pradesh where imports were suspendedafter a fire damaged the import pipelines and product storage terminal of Hindustan Petroleum Corp, he said.

Indias other liquefied petroleum gas import terminals are at Kandla in Gujarat and Mangalore in Karnataka.

A marginal rise in domestic output and surging demand, along with a drop in imports, would lead to a cut in liquefied petroleum gas inventories, the official said.

liquefied petroleum gas inventory of 135,000 tonnes on December 1 is projected to come down to 120,000 tonnes by March 31, 1998, he said.

In April-September 1997, liquefied petroleum gas consumption rose by 9.3 per cent to 2.14 million tonnes compared with the same period in the previous year.

Liquefied petroleum gas consumption between October 1997 and March 1998 is expected to grow by 18.5 per cent to 2.65 million tonnes against the same period in the previous year.

Annual LPG consumption in 1997-98 (April-March) is projected to grow by 14.2 per cent to 4.79 million tonnes compared with 4.2 million tonnes in 1996-97.