Environment & Energy | Sunday 8 February, 2015 7:43 am |

The National Gas and Industrialization Company (GASCO) distributed more than 290,000 cooking gas cylinders in Jeddah in the past four days, raising its stock to 15,000 barrels, a GASCO official source said Saturday.
According to an official source, the number of trucks distributing the cylinders has declined since Friday, after the delivery of large quantities of LPG, or liquified petroleum gas.
Jeddah residents are also taking their empty cylinders for refill to local stations, reducing the need to deliver gas at home.
Official figures estimated GASCO delivered over 77,000 cylinders using 136 trucks on Thursday alone, while Wednesday and Tuesday the firm handed out more than 75,000 and 70,000 canisters, respectively.
Due to the ongoing demand, GASCO continues to operate 20 hours a day — from 7 a.m. until 3 a.m. — with a 25 percent increase in production to ensure there are no supply shortages.
“About 56 trucks are working on the distribution operations in the city,” added the source.
The gas company announced last week it will continue to ship gas supplies from the Yanbu plant to meet demand in Jeddah.
With the sudden spike in distribution, the gas crisis is now gradually fading away, official sources said, thanks in part to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s close monitoring of the gas cylinder prices.
“By sunset on Friday, large quantities of gas cylinders were available at distribution centers. We expect the problem of gas shortage to end totally,” the official source added.
As part of efforts to prevent the emergence of a black market, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry recently shut down a shop selling overpriced gas cylinders. According to the ministry, the establishment had raised the price of each canister to SR70, taking advantage of the regional shortage. The ministry also called on citizens to report any such infraction by shops or gas distributors.