MANILA, Philippines—’Tis the season that’s supposed to bring in big bucks for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) dealers because of the surging demand for the fuel. But that’s not happening as they continue to incur overhead expenses even if they have no product to sell.

Arnel Ty, president of LPG Marketers Association, said major LPG suppliers Liquigaz, Petron, Pilipinas Shell and Total were refusing to sell cooking gas to dealers and were prioritizing their direct customers instead.

“We can’t operate normally. We usually open just every other day, four hours a day since we have nothing left to sell. Despite this, we still have to pay our employees,” Ty said at a stakeholders’ meeting at the Department of Energy Monday.

He said members of LPG Marketers Association were experiencing a tightness in supply for the past two weeks.

“But it has become more pronounced last week. In other months, when demand was not as high as now, (the LPG importers) were able to provide us with more supply. Now they’re only able to give us less than half of that,” he said.

Campaign against hoarding

As a result, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes has ordered the Presidential Task Force on the Security of Energy Facilities and Enforcement of Energy Laws and Standards to inspect the storage facilities of the LPG suppliers to ensure that they were not hoarding the product so as to jack prices up.

The inspections will be conducted within the week, according to Reyes. These will also include visits to LPG refilling plants and dealers’ outlets to ascertain that no dealer is taking advantage of the alleged supply shortage.

Ahead of the inspections, LPG importers and refiners denied the allegations of hoarding.

“We’re working overtime to supply the requirements of all our customers,” Petron representative Jo Pojol said. “We assure the public of a steady supply of LPG.”

50% surge in demand

Mylene Santos, Shell downstream communications manager, said the oil refiner had experienced a 50-percent increase in demand from its wholesalers, so it had to serve these customers’ demand first.

Malou Espina, Total Philippines corporate affairs manager, also admitted that it was difficult to keep up with the surge in demand, but the oil firm was still able to meet all its obligations to its customers.

“We have to give priority to our regular customers, those with whom we have contractual obligations. There’s no supply shortage. There are just some logistical problems that cause a delay in the shipment of products,” she said.

Queuing

Liquigaz representative Archie Roxas said that queuing of trucks waiting to be filled with LPG could not be avoided because the process of blending LPG and transferring it to the tankers took time.

“Even if the queues are longer than usual, we still try our best to meet the demand. There are just some technical limitations that have to be considered. We have to blend the product based on set specifications. We can’t just release products that are not within those standards,” he said.

He said demand had indeed surged. “But if you visit our terminals, you’ll see that the loading of our trucks is continuous. We don’t refuse to sell to anyone. The lines grow long because we can’t rush the loading process,” he added.

Upgrade distribution system

Reyes ordered the LPG importers and refiners to upgrade their distribution system to ensure that their products would reach the dealers and the consumers faster.

“There’s no problem with supply. It’s the queuing that’s the problem. This is such a small problem. Let’s not make it bigger. Just put in more effort to solve this problem,” the energy secretary said.

He said that he did not expect any supply shortage and that the problems with distribution would be solved.