ISLAMABAD, April 20: The death of an employee of a CNG station in a gas cylinder blast in Rawalpindi on Tuesday has set alarm bells ringing in the ministry of petroleum and the Hydro-Carbon Development Institute of Pakistan, as such incidents can wreck their efforts to promote use of an environment-friendly fuel.

Initial reports said the incident took place because of “poor quality cylinder.” The government has been encouraging the use of CNG but has completely ignored some dangerous aspects of its use in vehicles.

“We do regular checking of the CNG stations and have also instructed them not to entertain vehicles lacking fitness certificates,” said a senior official at the ministry of petroleum. But on the other hand, none of the CNG stations bothers to check the fitness certificates issued to the CNG- vehicles. A number of vehicles like pick-ups have got the CNG cylinders mounted on the roof.

According to the reports, Tuesday’s incident was the fifth of its kind taking the death toll to seven. Several incidents of fire had also been reported including the one at a filling station in F-7 in December last year.

Natural gas is compressed to about 3,000 psig in a small container. The pressure in the container is about 100 times higher than the normal tyre pressure of a vehicle.

“There are many CNG kit-sellers who are operating without licence and some of the (CNG) stations are also ignoring the government guidelines,” a senior official working with the ministry of petroleum told this reporter, requesting anonymity. When asked why action was not being taken against the owners of these stations, he said: “Influential people including some high- ranking officials in the Sui gas department own most of these stations.”

The gas being supplied to the CNG stations contains sulphur compounds as an odorant that can corrode cylinder over a period of time, he said. He said standards should be provided regarding the metallurgy of the tanks. “Regulations regarding periodic inner and outer inspection of the tank to monitor pitting due to corrosion should be provided.”

He said the use of the LPG was less hazardous, as the containers in this case were at lower pressure (50 to 60 psig).

Owing to the conversion of a large number of vehicles to the CNG system, the country is saving 300,000 tons of petrol annually, which comes to 20 per cent of the annual consumption of petrol. But experts say this should not be done at the cost of human lives.

“More alarming is the fact that some people bring a “home fuelling system” that hooks into the residential gas lines and makes it possible to fill a CNG cylinder,” the official said, adding that “It can be very dangerous, as it’s difficult rather impossible to know the exact pressure through this small unit.”—Muhammad Najeeb