Denise Clarke, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
ILLEGAL GAS operators have taken over one quarter of the market for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and are robbing local oil distributors of millions of dollars in business.
"Pirate filling is extremely big business. Twenty-five per cent of the market in Jamaica is pirate filling and we have spent millions of dollars trying to prosecute the people involved," operations manager for Shell, Winston Ormsby, said.
He was addressing participants in an oil spill seminar put on by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in Montego Bay last week. He said attempts to arrest the underground sale of LPG or cooking gas is proving a challenge for his company.
The Red Seal programme currently being promoted by Shell is just one attempt by the company to curb the illegal sale of LPG. The programme encourages consumers to purchase only those cylinders which carry a red seal on the top, and to do business only with authorised Shell dealers.
But, to further compound the problem a few authorised dealers are also buying gas from illegitimate sellers, Mr. Ormsby revealed.
"You will leave it at a dealer in the morning to go to work and pick it up in the evening. But, what you don't know is that the dealer took it to a little man down the road and refilled it. It is an issue that we are very concerned about... unfortunately it can't exist unless we support it," he said.
The practice is not only costly but is life-threatening. Illegal LPG sellers are not aware of the specifications to be observed when refilling a cylinder. In addition, the oil companies periodically check cylinders for leaks and other defects, which the illegal operators neither have the equipment nor the capability to do.
"It is a direct threat to peoples lives. People will know that 'Maas Joe' is selling gas, and he might do it for less money and will give them a little extra. When we fill a cylinder we have to make sure that enough space is left for expansion. People don't understand that the little money that they save now can blow up your house later," Mr. Ormsby cautioned. "That is why we are promoting the Red Seal programme, if you go anywhere and it doesn't have the red seal, don't buy it."
In the past few years, a small number of illegal gas traders have been prosecuted but the wider network of the operations have gone on undetected. Mr. Ormsby called for stiffer penalties for those involved in the illegal activity.
In the meantime, all Shell cylinders carry a serial number, which the company uses to trace the units each time they come to be refilled, providing this is done through an authorised dealer. Checks for defects are done every five years.
