Tanzania firm refutes Keb's safety concerns over its gas imports

Cooking gas firm Lake Gas has defended the quality of its first bulk consignment of imported cooking gas, insisting it meets the required quality and safety standards.

Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) had flagged the cooking gas cargo over failure to meet safety standards, noting it did not have adequate odourant, which is supposed to alert users in case of a leak.

Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) is odourless and is mixed with an odourant, mostly the chemical ethyl mercaptan, to give it the foul smell akin to rotten eggs to make it easily detectable in case of a leak.

In a statement yesterday, Lake Gas said it had concluded the process of adding ethyl mercaptan to the cooking gas consignment and now expects Kebs to give it the go-ahead to release the product in the market.

It also disputed claims that it had already loaded some of the gas into trucks that were ready to take the product to the different LPG refilling plants.

"We have now completed the process of infusing the required amount of odorant/stench in order to give our LPG the distinctive smell, pending Kebs' final inspection and testing of the smelling today before approving the gas to be released to the market," said Lake Gas General Manager Morris Mutiso.

"As it is now, Lake Gas LPG has not been released to the market, and will not be released until Kebs carries out the aforesaid standard procedures before we embark on the journey to transforming the LPG industry by ensuring quality and affordable products to the consumers."

The gas, according to Kebs, failed to have an adequate dose of stench, a foul-smelling chemical added to cooking gas before release to the market for safety.

Kebs had on Thursday written to Lake Gas and noted that tests carried out at the company's facilities had found that Lake Gas' odourant dosser was faulty, while the LPG did not have adequate odourant levels and posed a risk to users.

"We wish to reiterate the critical importance of accurate odorant dosing for consumer safety," said Kebs in a letter to Lake Gas on Thursday.