Indian cos push for a smarter way to use LPG

New Delhi: India's oil marketing companies (OMCs) are stepping up efforts to encourage a shift among their 4 million daily commercial and industrial LPG cylinder users to cylinders that dispense fuel in liquid form instead of gas.

While liquid off-take (LOT) cylinders have been part of OMCs' product portfolios for nearly two decades, customers have largely continued using conventional vapour off-take (VOT) cylinders.

A senior OMC official said the companies are now prioritising the supply of LOT cylinders to commercial and industrial customers.

The LOT systems, industry executives said, leave virtually no residual gas unlike VOT cylinders, offering better efficiency and significant cost savings at a time when geopolitical risks are raising supply concerns.132447360Pune Gas Systems, a 40-year-old OMC-empanelled LPG solutions provider, recently wrote to petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri, saying that shifting industrial and commercial users from VOT to LOT cylinders could save the country around ₹21,900 crore, or 1.46 million tonnes of gas, annually.

ET has seen a copy of the letter.

Every conventional 19-kg VOT cylinder leaves behind about 1 kg of unusable gas, residue that goes to waste for the consumer.

Scaled across the 4 million commercial cylinders consumed daily, this translates into roughly 4,000 tonnes of LPG wasted every day, or 1.46 million tonnes a year, equivalent to about 16 days of LPG consumption by commercial and industrial customers.

"OMCs have been offering the 47.5 kg LOT cylinder since 2007, but for some reason, it was never promoted actively, despite its clear edge in efficiency and safety," Pune Gas executive director Jesal Sampat told ET.

"As we have started deploying it with the help of OMCs now, it's gaining real traction with our customers, as we have now rolled it out across more than 1,000 businesses nationwide," he said.

The senior OMC official cited earlier said LOT cylinders had always been part of the company's product portfolio. ...