RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Pakistan LPG Marketers Association (PLPGMA) has expressed grave concern over declining production of local LPG and urged the government to take serious notice of this issue.

“It is a matter of grave concern that local LPG production in the country has fallen by approximately 500 metric tons per day due to the shutting down of the JJVL LPG production plant. With no standby arrangement this can create a major disturbance in the local supply of LPG resulting in an enhanced dependency on imports,” said the chairman of the association, Farooq Iftikhar. Due to imports of LPG, country’s precious resource would go to waste, posing a national energy security risk to the country as “our reliance on outside resources will increase in this tense situation on our international borders. We have recently experienced an energy crisis,” he said. The PLPGMA chief said that at a time of financial crisis there would be an additional burden on the foreign exchange reserves of the country as loss in production would inevitably be compensated with imports.