"Sorry No Gas" is one of the conspicuous inscriptions that continue to greet customers at the entrance of the numerous gas filling stations in the country. LPG gas has been in short supply in the capital for some days now.

The situation has resulted in long queues by cars at the various gas stations, waiting for the stations to take delivery of the scarce commodity. Some of the drivers, who spoke to The Chronicle yesterday at Tesano in Accra, said they had been waiting for the gas for their vehicles since last Monday.

At the Amoah Gas station in Tesano, there was a long queue of gas cylinders by domestic users, who might have to wait a little longer until the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) repairs some damaged pipelines before supplies could commence.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by TOR yesterday explained that the situation has arisen as a result of technical difficulties caused by the fire outbreak of 19th January 2010, which coincided with a major maintenance on the Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC) Unit, which has subsequently compelled the refinery to depend on imported finished products to serve the market.

It explained that in the process of discharging one such cargo of 5000 metric tones of LPG, which arrived over the weekend and arranged by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) from the oil Jetty to the refinery on Monday March 8, 2010. It detected a leakage on its 6'LPG pipeline. Hence the discharge was suspended.

It assured that personnel of the refinery are currently working around the clock to ensure that the pipeline is restored to facilitate the discharge of LPG to the refinery for onward distribution to the market. "TOR recognizes the difficulty the public is going through and liaising with the NPA to resolve the supply problem." it stated.