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Brighton Gumbo Business Reporter
BULAWAYO has been hit by the shortage of liquefied petroleum (LP) gas as the South African based supplier of the commodity has gone on annual shutdown to facilitate the servicing of equipment.

According to a snap survey conducted by Business Chronicle yesterday, most of the gas retail outlets were out of stock and ultimately closed for business while the few that are still open have increased the price which used to range from $1,50 to $2 a kg to $3.

Value Gas sales representative Abel Murisa said the South African supplier had stopped production to facilitate the servicing of equipment.

“We’ve learnt that our South African gas supplier, Warsa is closed for annual machinery maintenance, which we’ve been told is for a short-term. We weren’t anticipating such inconvenience and that’s why we didn’t stock enough to meet demand,” said Murisa.

He said to keep the business afloat, the gas retailer will resort to procuring the gas from other neighbouring countries such as Mozambique.

Forget Rungwandi, a gas filler at Mega Gas said the local wholesalers who supply them with LP gas in bulk are out of stock and promised normal supplies would resume next week.

“Our local suppliers like Pioneer, BP, Boc Gas are out of stock and they’re saying their major South African supplier is servicing equipment until August,11,” he said.

He said his organisation was planning to source the gas in Botswana so that they continue supplying the market.

“We want to keep our daily operations uninterrupted and as a result we’ll soon import LP gas from Botswana.

“During this period of equipment servicing by our South African supplier, we shall be selling the gas at $3 a kilogramme,” said Rungwandi.

Gas filler at Zimba Gas, Daniel Marufu said there has been a shortage of the commodity on the market since last week, a situation that has prompted the local suppliers to increase the price of the gas.

“Our price for the gas has been increased from $2 a kilogramme to $3 a kilogramme because our local suppliers have run out of stock and thus we’re now sourcing it directly from neighbouring Botswana or Mozambique, which is more costly taking into consideration the size of our business,” he said.

Due to the continued load shedding by Zesa, a number of households throughout Zimbabwe’s urban centres have resorted to using LP gas as an alternative to electricity.

The country whose peak electricity demand is 2,200 megawatts a day, produces 1,500MW.