Demand for gas cylinders rises amidst cold weather

AMMAN — Demand for gas cylinders has increased from the average 70,000 cylinders per day to 205,000 cylinders daily, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported Saturday. 

The Gas Station Owners Association (GSOA) said the rising demand is due to the cold weather conditions around the Kingdom.

The GSOA claimed that the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company’s (JPRC) gas filling stations are not providing gas stations with their needs, while the company said it is working at full capacity to meet the current demand, which, it said, surpasses its production capacity. 

Commenting on the issue, Mohammad Maharmeh, the head of the JPRC gas department, said that the filling stations have provided gas offices with 398,000 gas cylinders over three days through the Amman station, which works round the clock, and through the Irbid and Zarqa stations, which he said work from 7am to 12 midnight. 

GSOA President Nahar Seidat blamed the stations for not committing to securing the demands of warehouse owners and gas cylinder distribution agencies during winter days. 

Twenty-six trucks at the Amman gas filling station remained laden with empty gas cylinders from Thursday and into Friday morning, when the cylinders were finally filled, according to Seidat.

He added that the same issue happened at the Zarqa and Irbid stations, which he claimed were not working at full capacity and thus forced warehouse owners to meet only half of the orders they received.