The Demerara Oxygen Company Limited (DOCOL) yesterday launched a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) filling plant at its site in Eccles.
The $80M plant is the first fully automated one to be built locally and can fill up to 500 cylinders per hour. The new technology is expected to improve the company’s service to customers by reducing waiting time for customers.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer Shameer Hoosein hailed the plant for its efficiency and its safety. He said that the plant was the most modern in the Caribbean and stated that it will result in a big increase from the previous system used. The manual system previously employed could only have done 250 cylinders per hour.

The CEO also said that one of the main factors behind bringing this new technology to Guyana “was to obtain efficiencies which would be passed on to our consumers inclusive of better pricing.”  Hoosein said that ideally his company would like for a 9 kg cylinder of Texgas to be sold at $3000 and is committed to seeing this accomplished. Currently a 9 kg cylinder is priced at $3,200 which is a reduction from the previous price of $3,750. 
Hoosein said that because of the nature of the products they manufactured, stored, packaged and distributed the company placed a significant emphasis on Health, Safety, Security and Environmental Issues.

Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir congratulated DOCOL on this initiative and applauded them for their efforts to ensure their safety of their labourers.  He said that last year there were five industrial deaths and so far there were nine deaths this year. He said that this was a worrying trend and said that more companies had to come on board to help curb this problem.

Raymond Samuels, District Manager of Chevron (the principal supplier of Texgas), spoke on behalf of his organization and also commended them for this initiative. He said that his company was looking forward to a greater partnership with DOCOL.
The installation and initial testing period for the plant lasted for about three weeks and was done by an engineer from the supplier Kosan Crisplant of Denmark in collaboration with the engineering  department of DOCOL.