Gas cannisters. Picture: Facebook
The recent shortage of liquefied petroleum has (LPG) in the Western Cape was due to weather related and refinery issues, the energy department said.
Many had taken to social media to complain that they had been sent from pillar to post trying to find someone who would supply them with gas canisters.
They had been unable to use their gas heaters and stoves at the height of cold and wet weather.
The department said the shortage had only been for a short period of time and was limited to domestic users.
“Firstly, [the] PetroSA refinery had experienced [a] challenge with a unit that produces LPG for the past two weeks. Secondly, LPG vessels were delayed due to bad weather last week,” it said.
“The supply of LPG in Cape Town should be fine because the imports arrived at Saldanha on Monday and the PetroSA refinery unit that was on a shutdown is reported to be back online.”
Commercial and industrial users were unlikely to have been impacted as they kept stock to mitigate supply disruptions.
Sunrise Energy, which owns and operates the LPG terminal at the Port of Saldanha, said bad weather had prevented the replenishment vessel from offloading LPG on 8 July.
“The storm we had experienced, we had waves in the entrance of 12.1 metres and higher,” CEO Pieter Coetzee said.
“It was massive so the vessel could not come into the harbour and we experienced a weather delay. Unfortunately, those waves also damaged one of our mooring buoys but that was repaired very quickly.”
He said they had all the spares to repair the damage, which was completed on 18 July.
“The terminal was then restocked to its maximum capacity of 5500MT, is 100 percent operational and is open for truck loading and transport. In fact, as many as 33 trucks are currently being loaded on a daily basis.
“As a result of the above, there is a full supply of LPG available in the Western Cape and any suggestion to the contrary is entirely false.”
Some LPG stores had warned customers that their orders might be delayed as they attended to the backlog.
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