Liquid gas price: govt to step in

Cape Town - Government intervention to reduce the cost of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was inevitable, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said on Monday.

Speaking at the opening of the Africa Energy Week conference in Cape Town, she said natural gas and LPG were grossly underused on the continent.

"We need to find imaginative ways of increasing the use of this energy resource" she said.

"On LPG, the cost seems to be a deterrent and therefore government intervention to reduce the cost is inevitable."

Peters said the absence of gas infrastructure on one hand, and developed local markets on the other, seemed to be a chicken and egg situation.

She noted that one of the issues to be discussed at the conference was how to improve capacity in government energy departments in Africa.

"We need to reduce reliance of overseas consultants at the expense of building national capacity," she said.

- Sapa