As gas cylinders explode, who else but the Government to blame?

by Rajan Philips

Who would have thought Litro Gas and Laugfs Gas (not quite the Laughing Gas with Lankan typos), will light up Sri Lankan politics for all the wrong reasons? President Rajapaksa should fire his current clairvoyants and get new diviners who can at least smell leaking gas even if they cannot find missing water. But monsoons are making sure that no one is missing any water, which will become dear when the climate change cycle turns to the other extreme of drought, come next year.

For now, it is all about cooking gas leaks and kitchen explosions. And the news report (Daily Mirror, December 2) that “Experts point out measures to be taken to avert gas explosions,” raises the obvious question as to why these measures could not have been announced weeks earlier, either by the government or the two suppliers, or both. And what is the point in communicating to users of LPG cylinders for domestic cooking, the applicable standards for accessories: for Regulators, SLS – 1180; and for hoses, SLS – 1172.

Why could not have anyone in the government or from the suppliers hollered from their podiums what the Experts Committee is now saying, that “if people suspect the domestic LP gas cylinder(s), it needs to be immediately placed outside and consumers need to contact their sales agents or reach relevant officials.” Or that “the recommended usage period for a regulator is five years and for hoses is two years.” But no indication, however, of the age of the accessories in the recent instances of kitchen explosions, or as a matter of general use in the country.

Do either of the suppliers know any of this? Do they make it a point to insistently inform their customers of necessary safety measures – including the usage period not only for the accessories, but also for the cylinders. Is this information printed and pasted on the cylinders, and given to customers to be posted on kitchen doors and walls? Hopefully, providing this information will now become a standard practice for the suppliers and will be enforced by local civilian authorities. Not the army, or the police, please.

Better Safe than Sorry

Still there is no explanation for the spate of explosions within a short period. According to a reported statement by State Minister (Co-operative Services, Marketing Development, and Consumer Protection) Lasantha Alagiyawanna, 213 gas explosions have been reported between January 2015 and 31 October 2021. 131 of them, more than half, have been this year from 1 January to 1 December. Last week there were reports of eleven incidents within a 24 hour period. While domestic gas explosions are not uncommon, the frequency of incidents this year, and in November alone, required much quicker and more comprehensive responses by the government and the suppliers than what has been on offer so far.

The use of LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) gas in portable cylinders for cooking, is quite common in several countries. They are also a hazardous appurtenance prone to accidents if not handled with due care. For this reason, in many western countries it is illegal to use gas cylinders inside a house. They are only permitted to be used for outdoor – barbeque (BBQ) – cooking. Indoor cooking appliances are either electrical or based on natural gas supplied through pipeline infrastructure.

In other countries, big and small, where electricity costs are prohibitive and there is no natural gas and pipe infrastructure for supply, the gas cylinders have provided a convenient alternative to traditional firewood and biomass cooking. LPG gas cylinders have become ubiquitous in upscale kitchens as well as shanty dwellings – from Brazil to China and hundreds of countries in between.

Although they are both crude oil products, LPG and natural gas are different in composition, heat energy content and density. LPG is either propane or butane, or a mix of both. Natural gas is primarily methane. Natural gas is also lighter than air and more safely dissipates when leaked, unlike LPG which is heavier and fills up in lower, confined spaces. One advantage LPG has over natural gas is in storage and portability. LPG can be stored and moved in tanks or cylinders. Natural gas requires special cryogenic tanks for storage and pipeline for consumers.

In a recent scientific journal article on domestic gas explosions in India, its academic authors identify Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a cleaner source of cooking fuel. The use of firewood and biomass for cooking by hundreds of millions of households has been a major source of pollution in India. The increasing use of LPG gas cylinders is seen as a welcome change. Registered LPG users in India have more than doubled from 106 million in 2008/09 to 263 million in 2017/18.

Similar to the practice in Sri Lanka and elsewhere, the domestic LPG supply in India is provided in 14.2 kg and 5.0 kg cylinders. According to the article, the gas supply in India is given a faint but foul smell by adding Mercaptan (foul-smelling Methanethiol) to help its detection when leaked. In addition to settling down, the heavier LPG also “condenses the water vapor in it to form a whitish fog,” making it easy to identify. While there have been cases of LPG explosions in Indian households, the journal article reviews the case of a rather horrendous blast when two women were trying to refill in their kitchen, a 5 kg cylinder with gas from a 14.2 kg cylinder, while cooking was going on. Both died on the spot and their burnt remains were ghastly.

Hopefully, no one in Sri Lanka will attempt refilling cylinders (among neighbours), or tamper with gas supply accessories when the cooking fire is on. There are also basic safety tips while using domestic LPG gas cylinders: keep all accessories and knobs out of reach for children; and shut the cylinder valve off before turning the burner off, so as to burn of all the gas released from the cylinder. What might be more difficult to achieve in many households is to ensure that the kitchen or cooking areas are well ventilated and facilitate through-air flow.

Safety education is important and should pervade all levels of communication – from schools, to media, and advertising. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka like so many countries where the use of LPG gas cylinders is widespread, does not have functioning safety and fire/emergency agencies at the local level. In such absence, it is fair to expect the suppliers of LPG gas to take the lead role in ensuring safety with government support. I am not sure if Mercaptan is added to the gas supply in Sri Lanka as it is done in India to give it a foul smell for detecting leaks. If not, it would be worthy of consideration.

No Regulators, Only Rumours

The most rumoured allegation is that there has been a change in the proportions of Propane and Butane in recent LPG supplies to an even 50-50 split from the regular 70 (butane) to 30 (propane) ratio. And that is the reason for the recent explosions. Both Litro Gas and Laugfs Gas have vehemently denied this and have also contended that it would be uneconomical for them to increase the proportion of propane which costs more than butane. State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna has also confirmed this. The Government Analyst and the Consumer Affairs Authority would also appear to be in disagreement with the alleged change in the proportions of the two gases. The Experts’ Committee has also made no reference to it in its first public statement from as reported in the media. Whether anything different will come later on, we know not.

What is mystifying is why this allegation (about changing the gas mix) cannot be put to rest promptly and authoritatively by the government. Or, of course, if the allegation is correct it should be confirmed promptly and addressed without delay. As if it does not have enough worries on its plate, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is reported to have done tests on the gas composition and its report, which has not been publicized, apparently “confirms that if the gas composition is 50% propane and 50% butane, there is a higher risk of gas leaks.” This is academic, the real question is about the actual proportion of gases in the two samples that CPC is reported to have tested.

While the CPC’s findings have reportedly been sent to the University of Moratuwa for review, the gas suppliers are rejecting CPC’s credentials to make this determination. Litro Gas has even said that CPC has a conflict of interest as a potential competitor planning to enter the LPG cylinder market on its own. That will be some competition between two ‘State enterprises’ – if you will pardon the oxymoron. Still after one year and 131 explosions, the country is nowhere closer to a plausible explanation. Everyone is going round in circles, if not circus.

There is also great deal of confusion about the applicable standards and regulations for the LPG gas industry. According to State Minister Alagiyawanna (who seems to be carrying on his shoulders all the political cylinders on the LPG matter), Sri Lanka has no regulations to deal with the industry and there are no designated agencies to supervise them. “We have no legal laboratory in Sri Lanka to check the quality of domestic gas,” the Minister has specifically said. The Minister’s worry is supported by Chairman Janaka Ratnayake of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL). According to him, a standard for the Liquid Petroleum (LP) gas has already been formulated by the Commission, but “the PUCSL does not have the legal powers to enforce the standard.” Who does, who will, and when?

Until then, the country will be put through multiple rumour mills and conspiracy machines. A convoluted theory seems to be that the same masterminds behind the Easter bombings are at work again – for the benefit of whom, God only knows. But this is a dangerous game, more dangerous than the fallopian fantasy, or the Trincomalee corridor that Americans were supposed to create through the now aborted Millennium Compact. The ever creative SJB MP Harin Fernando, is seeing “foul play between Litro and the government.” According to Mr. Fernando, the spate of explosions is all a ploy to make the gas industry unpopular and use it as justification to sell off Litro to financially benefit the government – which is fast running out of badly needed foreign currencies and is printing away valueless local monies.

Lesser mortals like yours truly are not good at conspiracies and these theories are a tad difficult for us to understand. What is not difficult to understand is the government’s lack of quick response to these sudden eruptions. The government has many other serious matters to worry about, and we have become all too familiar with its inability to respond to them quickly and substantively. As a parting shot, I will pose this question unrelated to today’s topic, but a topic that I was planning to write on this week. With everything going wrong and nothing going right, why on earth is the government insisting on foisting on the country a new constitution? And why is the opposition waiting to react to a draft after it is tabled, instead of rejecting it out of hand before it is brought to parliament. The country deserves to be free not only of LPG explosions, but also from another bout of constitutional inflammation.