The private sector needs to invest P20 billion to replace 6 million substandard liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks by January 2025, an executive of Republic Gas Corp. (Regasco) said over the weekend.
“We encourage all our consumers as early as now to replace their substandard cylinders. Those include with no brands [and] dilapidated, because they will be replaced by the industry,” Regasco president Arnel Ty said.
Ty said that under the LPG Industry Regulation Act, all substandard and dilapidated LPG cylinders should be replaced by Jan. 7, 2025 out of the 40 million cylinders in circulation.
“To those holding those cylinders, we have a law on last-touch policy. Those holding it will be criminally charged, and there is still time of more than one year to replace it free of charge. For consumers, it’s free under the law. It is the industry participants who will shoulder the cost,” he said.
Ty said there are around 40 million LPG cylinders in the country based on data from the Department of Energy.
“We want the consumers to know that the replacement is free, because it can be a cause of accidents,” Ty said, citing data from the Bureau of Fire Protection of up to 4,000 accidents annually.
“I believe the LPG fires and LPG explosions is the reason the DOE [Department of Energy], Congress, Senate passed a law to force industry participants to shoulder the rehabilitation of substandard cylinders,” he said.
Ty said the LPG industry would spend around P20 billion to replace substandard cylinders, which should not be passed on to consumers.
Ty said the industry so far received 2 million cylinders since 2021 and was still waiting to replace the remaining 4 million, mostly in Luzon.
“The cylinders are ready. That is why we will have an active nationwide info drive next year with DOE, DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] to inform consumers that they have to return the substandard cylinders,” he said.
Regasco has been providing quality and affordable LPG products to households since 1998. It is 100-percent Filipino-owned company brought to Luzon by South Pacific Inc., one of the largest storage facilities in the Philippines with a capacity of 22,000 metric tons.