Unless you are a company or live in a residential complex that sources industrial propane gas, over the past six months obtaining cooking gas or propane to run your car has become a very big headache. El Caribe reports that the long lineups of public transport cars, homemakers and propane vendor trucks continue at the distributors? outlets, as everyone waits for the supplies to arrive. Propane gas sold by these distributors is subsidized by the government, and the price has been kept at RD$25 per gallon, contrary to other fuel prices that have been indexed to inflation, the dollar and international price fluctuations.
Hoy newspaper announced that some temporary relief is expected to start today, as the Dominican Petroleum Refinery began dispatching supplies yesterday after the arrival of a shipment. Another shipment is expected on Thursday.
The government-intervened Listin Diario reports that the Refinery shipment was for 56,000 barrels of propane gas and that another slightly larger shipment is expected from Africa. The Listin says that propane gas consumption has increased 27 million gallons a month as more public transport vehicles have switched to the cheaper fuel.