LAHORE, Dec 6: The $40 million Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) facility in Jamshoro, Sindh, is expected to be commissioned for commercial production by the end of December.

A project of Lahore-based business group, the Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL), is so far the largest LPG facility in the country that will produce 500 ton LPG and 100 ton Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) per day, raising the total national LPG production by 50 per cent.

At present, the LPG production in the country is said to be around 950 tons. OGDCL and Parco are the major producers of liquefied gas. "JJVL will be the first plant to produce NGL in the country," a company spokesman Mohammad Irfan Khokhar told this reporter on Monday.

The spokesman said the commencement of LPG production by the new facility would bring down its price to Rs22 per kilo (or Rs9-10/litre) from the existing Rs50 per kilo. Besides, it will help meet energy requirements of 500,000 households and generate 5,000 direct and indirect jobs through the setting up of distribution outlets across the country.

The current gap between demand and supply of LPG is said to be about 400-500 tons, which shoots to 800-900 tons during the winters. Even after the commissioning of the new plant and 50 per cent increase in the supply, the country will continue to suffer LPG shortage of 300 tons during the winters, the spokesman claimed.

JJVL has imported about 400 ton LPG last month to create its demand in the country. During the months of December and January, another 6,000 ton LPG is expected to be imported.

The plant, which will have its own power generation system to be run on natural gas, will process 200-mmcfd gas per day from the system of the Sui Southern Gas Company and extract propane, butane and gas condensate.

The most distinct feature of this state-of-the-art gas processing plant is that it has been designed on Ort loff technology, which recovers 99 per cent of propane. All other plants in the country recover only 30-35 per cent propane. The plant, the work on which began in March this year, is completely automated and requires only 10 persons for each shift.

The spokesman said the sponsors of the plant also intend to expand the project later on and set up such facilities at oil wells abandoned by major oil and gas producing companies like OGDCL, considering them economically unviable, in Golachi, Sinjoro, Pars and Tandu Allahyar fields.