The 4 million commercial and industrial LPG cylinder customers in India are being urged to switch to cylinders that dispense fuel in liquid form rather than gas by the country's oil marketing companies (OMCs). Customers have mostly continued to use traditional vapour off-take (VOT) cylinders even though liquid off-take (LOT) cylinders have been a part of OMCs' product portfolios for almost 20 years.
The supply of LOT cylinders to commercial and industrial clients is now the companies' top priority, according to a senior OMC official. Industry leaders stated that, in contrast to VOT cylinders, the LOT systems leave almost no residual gas, providing greater efficiency and substantial cost savings at a time when supply concerns are being raised by geopolitical uncertainties.In a recent letter to petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Pune Gas Systems, a 40-year-old OMC-empanelled LPG solutions provider, claimed that switching industrial and commercial users from VOT to LOT cylinders could save the nation about ₹21,900 crore, or 1.46 million tonnes of gas, annually. A copy of the letter has been seen by ET.
Approximately 1 kilogram of useless gas is left behind by each standard 19-kg VOT cylinder; this residue is wasted by the customer. This amounts to nearly 4,000 tonnes of LPG wasted daily, or 1.46 million tonnes annually, or roughly 16 days' worth of LPG usage by commercial and industrial clients, when the 4 million commercial cylinders utilized each day are taken into account."OMCs have been offering the 47.5 kg LOT cylinder since 2007, but for some reason, it was never promoted actively, despite its clear edge in efficiency and safety," Jesal Sampat, executive director of Pune Gas, told ET.We've rolled it out across more than 1,000 businesses countrywide since we started distributing it with the assistance of OMCs, and it's really gaining traction with our customers," he stated.
LOT cylinders have long been a part of the company's product line, according to the senior OMC executive previously mentioned.