While a shipload of LPG was expected momentarily, homemakers and public transportation drivers were feeling the propane gas scarcity, as reported in El Caribe and Hoy newspapers. The Dominican Refinery ran out of LPG on Saturday, and most retailers had closed their operations earlier that day. Those few LPG retailers that did have propane experienced huge demand and lengthy queues of clients in need of the fuel. The LPG terminals in Azua and San Pedro de Macoris were also closed down. Clemente Morillo Uribe, a spokesman for the Petroleum Truckers? Association, said that on Saturday only 18 tankers were filled, about half the amount of tanks filled during a normal shift.
Along with the scarcity, El Caribe reported that LPG consumption has grown by 22.7% over the last few months, increasing from 22 million gallons per month to 27 million, according to information from the Ministry of Industry & Commerce. Propane gas is the dominant fuel for household and industrial use, as well as an alternate combustible used in the majority of those cars offering passenger service in the cities. A growing number of private SUV owners are also know to have converted their vehicles to use the much cheaper, heavily subsidized fuel.
Today?s newspapers are reporting that a LPG shipment arrived yesterday at the terminal run by the Dominican Refinery. According to Morillo, 11 trucks were loaded with as much as 110,000 gallons of liquid propane, and another ship loaded with 1.8 million gallons of fuel will arrive today at the Coastal facility in San Pedro de Macoris. The 22.7% increase in demand was attributed to the problems in April when only 17 million gallons were imported. According to Arturo Santana, an official from Coastal, this produced an increased demand in the following months as consumers restocked their shortfall from April.