Bottling plants of oil marketing companies are utilizing around 120%

Bottling plants of oil marketing companies are utilizing around 120% of their capacities and some even resorting to night shifts owning demands for the petroleum gas cylinders by the governments plan, named, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala yojana (PMUY) and requirements for the refills. Some bottling plants have started night shifts after obtaining requisite permissions from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) to cater to the requirement for LPG cylinders.

LPG consumption for 2017-18 up to March has arrived 21.3 MMT and is expected to hit 23.5 MMT for the full year, according to another government official. The PMUY was launched in May 2016 and the plan focuses to provide half-free LPG connections along with the kit to households, available for the below-poverty-line category. The purpose of this planning is to ensure purified cooking fuel which helps to balance the level to reduce carbon emission level. The initial plan was to cover five crore households in three years from the timeline of beginning. The government in the Budget for 2018-19 announced to extend it to eight crore households by 2020. As on date, more than 3.5 crore connections have been issued under the PMUY.

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According to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, as on February 2018, there were 26 crores registered domestic LPG consumers, of which 22.1 crores were active. There are 189 bottling plants in the country with the bottling capacity of 16,714 TMT per annum. Another 32 are being set up by the OMCs and these are under various stages of construction. Of 32 future plants, 21 are being set up by Indian Oil Corporation.

The increased demand has also led to the backlog in supply of LPG cylinders and the number of days of delay varies across the country. “It also depends on the proximity to a bottling plant,” said the first official. For instance, the backlog in Assam for IOC customers is six days, but that for BPCL customers is three days.