KARACHI, Jan 2: National Refinery Limited (NRL) and Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) have raised the prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs900 per ton from January 1.

Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) notified on Tuesday the increase in LPG price to Rs16,376.7 per ton from Rs15,159.8.

The new price of PRL’s LPG is Rs12,866 per ton, up by Rs900 and almost same increase has been made by NRL, officials in these refineries said.

As a result of this, LPG prices registered a surge in the last few weeks to Rs35 per kg. An LPG cylinder of 11.8 kg now costs Rs265 as compared to Rs230, but in some areas the price of cylinder has surged by Rs50.

An official in a local refinery attributed the price hike to the exchange rate fluctuations, import of LPG at higher prices by some parties and slight increase in demand from rickshaw and taxi owners.

He said PRL was scheduled to be closed down for 43 days for modernization, revamping and maintenance purpose. As a result of this, some market players had imported LPG to cash this opportunity.

However, PRL later postponed the closure of its operations till March. In the meantime, around two cargoes of 2,500 tons of imported LPG arrived at the Port Qasim.

“The price should have stabilized if imported consignments had arrived. But the market is yet to cut price. Where the imported LPG has gone,” one refinery official queries.

The current production of PRL is 50 tons per day followed by 35 tons of NRL, 400 tons of PARCO and 20 tons per day of ARL.

The demand for LPG has also risen due to chillier weather in the northern parts and Punjab as consumers use it as an alternate source of fuel instead of kerosene oil, coal and wood. Besides, a large number of rickshaw and taxi owners have shifted to LPG from petrol and diesel since the petroleum prices have gone up.

“The use of LPG in rickshaws and taxis is not allowed and it is illegal due to danger of capturing fire suddenly,” a refinery official said.

Industry sales of LPG in 2001 stood at 270,000 tons and it is estimated to go up to 300,000-325,000 tons this year, an official in an LPG marketing company said.

In recent years, the country saw a mushroom growth in emergence of LPG marketing companies, rising to 17-18 currently as compared to 10-12 a year back and only four a decade back.