Gas company denies hoarding rival’s cylinders

Gas supplier Easygas has denied it is causing a supply shortage by “hoarding” its rival’s cylinders and accused Liquigas of choosing to “whine” to the authorities because it was not coping with market demand.

“Liquigas is blaming its inadequacy to supply, which appears to be affecting distributors rather than consumers, over the fact that Easygas is ‘hoarding’ empty gas cylinders,” the company said yesterday.

Liquigas has accused its competitor of keeping between 4,000 and 6,000 of its green and yellow cylinders, severely depleting its working stock.

However, Easygas argued these were only a “minute and insignificant percentage” of the entire cylinder stock.

“Liquigas claims it has put 56,000 new cylinders on the market since 2009 − in addition to the hundreds of thousands already in the possession of households,” Easygas said in a statement.

“This goes to show that the 6,000 cylinders which Liquigas claims to be in possession of Easygas represent only a minute and insignificant percentage of the stock that regularly changes hands within the market.”

The controversy erupted in January, when Easygas started accepting empty yellow, green or brown Liquigas cylinders in exchange for its new grey ones at no extra cost if consumers wanted to switch suppliers.

The move was made after Liquigas decided that customers who wanted to return empty cylinders had to present their receipt to receive the full €25 refund, where this amount applied. Otherwise, they would only get a €5 refund.

Easygas had said the Liquigas decision was creating a hurdle for customers who wanted to switch suppliers and went against the spirit of free competition.

The matter is being contested legally in a case before the First Hall of the Civil Court, where Liquigas is demanding the return of the cylinders.

Easygas said there were “other obvious reasons” for stock depletion, including the “constant need to substitute or refurbish cylinders which no longer satisfy national and European safety standards”.

“Liquigas is trying to give the impression Easygas wants to keep the cylinders, hoarding them in an effort to kill competition by starving Liquigas of a constant supply of returns for refilling,” it said.

However, Liquigas had failed to mention that Easygas said it would transfer all the “hoarded” cylinders at the same price that it “acquired” them from the public − €25 − a fair price endorsed by the resources authority’s official website, it said.

“The reality is that Liquigas is not ready to pay the price for the cylinders which it needs to operate, neither to the customers nor to Easygas,” the company said.

Replying to the accusations, Liquigas said Easygas was not authorised to collect any of its cylinders or pay any deposits on behalf of Liquigas – it was doing so abusively, of its own accord, and against the normal practice across all Europe.

“Irrationally, Easygas is asking Liquigas to once again buy the same cylinders Liquigas had originally bought from Enemalta,” it said, insisting brown, yellow and green cylinders were its property and it was demanding their return.

“Easygas is not denying the fact that it has hoarded at least 6,000 Liquigas cylinders. This is yet more proof for the authorities to take action against Easygas as the situation at the gas filling station is becoming critical.”