Pertamina Withdraws 500,000 Damaged LPG Canisters

SEMARANG, - State oil company PT Pertamina has withdrawn 500,000 damaged three-kilogram LPG canisters from markets in Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces. Manager of PT Pertamina’s domestic gas affairs for Central Java and Yogyakarta, Ari Anggara, said here Monday the withdrawn canisters mostly had no Indonesian Industrial Standard Number (SNI) labels.

The SNI label indicates a product’s quality. Ari Anggara said all of the withdrawn LPG canisters had been brought and kept in store houses in Yogyakarta and the Central Java town of Cilacap for repair or re-examination.

Despite the outcomes of the re-examination, he said he had yet to know whether those LPG canisters would be reused and distributed to the markets due to the absence of SNI labels. "According to the minister for industry’s regulation number 85/M-IND/PER/11/2008, there must be SNI label on all LPG canisters," he said.

Since the government began implementing its kerosene-to-LPG conversion plan in 2007, at least 45 million packages of gas stoves and three-kilogram gas cylinders have been distributed to the people. Since then, LPG canister explosions had frequently happened in various parts of Indonesia.

In dealing with the problem, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had ever proposed that the LPG aroma be made more smelly to enable gas stove users to detect leaking LPG cylinders. President Yudhoyono also underlined the importance of public awareness campaigns by issuing "secure gas use" posters.

First Lady Ani Yudhoyono had even called on housewives in Indonesia to be more careful in using three-kilogram LPG canisters in their kitchen to anticipate unexpected blasts. "I hope housewives will be more careful in the kitchen," Ani Yudhoyono told selected teachers from rural areas at a State Palace function last August.

She said she was very concerned about the three-kilogram LPG canister blasts that frequently happened in the country. To keep themselves free from the risk, the First Lady said, Indonesian households should to take care of and warn one another about the wrong handling of gas canisters and their accessories.

"Please remind them. Maybe, they don’t know the safe way of using gas canisters," she said.
SUMBER