Energypac held a webinar on illegal cylinder filling and its adverse effect on the business and economy.
Cylinder filling is a great threat to the LPG industry in Bangladesh. It is a dangerous practice that can lead to explosions and fires.
Chief Business Officer G-Gas LPG Abu Sayed Raza chaired the event where as M Muntasir Alam from Bexiomco LPG; Md Hasin Parvez, CEO of Green Fuel Technologies and secretary general of Autogas Owners Association graced the webinar with their valuable speech, reads a press release.
The ratio of LPG cylinder illegal filling in Bangladesh is high. This means they are filled with LPG from a different source than the one they were originally filled with.
As per the Bangladesh government policy, no one is allowed to fill an LPG cylinder outside an authorized LPG plant. Even LPG operators cannot fill each other cylinders without proper agreement or legal compliance.
The current government policy draws strong attention to the companies who are conducting cylinder filling violating laws.
As per the law, there must be a Standard Uniform agreement between refuelling stations and government-approved operators and distributors of liquid petroleum gas.
Auto-gas refuelling stations and government-approved operators and distributors of liquid petroleum gas must comply with the directives stipulated in this agreement.
Also, autogas refuelling stations are required to sell Autogas purchased from contracted LPG marketing companies.
Regarding restrictions on filling LPG in portable containers, LPG shall not be filled in any portable container other than a fuel container attached to the engine known to the motor or any other automatic engine from an LPG dispensing station engaged in supplying fuel to automatic engines.
There are a number of risk factors associated with LPG cylinder illegal filling. The use of substandard cylinders and valves, use of incorrect filling procedures and mixing of different types of LPG.
These risk factors can lead to explosions and fires. In fact, there have been a number of accidents in Bangladesh that have been caused by LPG cylinder illegal filling.
Abu Sayed Raja said: “LPG companies are being affected by cylinder illegal filling in a number of ways. They are losing customers to illegal operators. They are also facing increased costs due to the need to replace damaged cylinders.”
Speakers urged the government initiatives to prevent cylinder filling by Increasing the number of inspections of LPG filling stations, imposing stricter penalties for those who are caught illegal-filling cylinders and raising awareness of the dangers of LPG cylinder illegal filling among consumers and society.