New Selling Price of LPG, Zeta Gas Wants New License to Import

An LPG dispute has been taking place for some time. Tonight, there is an answer to one of the thorny issues involving prices. Before a release from the Belize Bureau of Standards, Southern Choice Butane Limited held a press conference to reaffirm that it had ran out of its supply of LPG. It is also making a request for government through the Bureau of Standards, to allow them to import liquefied petroleum gas into the country.  According to the company, it had to shut down its branches countrywide because it was out of butane and the National Gas Company Limited and the Bureau of Standards have not been able to provide them information on the new price structure and market conditions to ensure that there is uninterrupted supply of LPG to consumers. During a press conference today, representatives of the Zeta Gas told News Five that the monopoly company, National Gas Company Limited, in which the government has shares, is inexperienced and that there is no clear rules of what the commercialization of butane gas will be like.  Import licences expired at the end of April, but the Southern Choice Butane Limited Representative Ernesto Wu made an open request today. He wants a new licence to import LPG in the country. 

Ernesto Wu

Ernesto Wu, Representative, Southern Choice Butane Ltd. (Zeta Gas)

“The Belize Bureau of Standards and we have also contacted Doctor Canton to try and find what is the process that we need to go about acquiring the product. According to Doctor Canton, he is waiting on the price structure from the government and at the same time, the government has not been able to give us the price structure. We have been informed that this new monopoly is supposed to be giving us a better price for the final consumer and in this view and in the fact that we are out of product and all our branches are currently closed, we are hereby requesting the intervention of the Business Bureau to assist us in acquiring this information. We request the government to allow us to continue to import so that we may supply the thirty percent of the market that we have been doing for over the past years. We want to continue working for the wellbeing of all Belizeans. We hope that the Government of Belize will give us the new price structure and the market conditions for LPG. If the government is unable to meet those demands, we request immediate approval of importation of LPG in the country.”