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PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
areas, including Repulse Bay on the Island and the industrial towns of Kwun Tong, Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan. Towngas production is centred at Ma Tau Kok, Kowloon, and the Island is supplied by two submarine gas mains across the harbour. The total installed production capacity of the station is approximately 14 million cubic feet per day. Tsuen Wan is supplied by an independent station with a capacity of 900,000 cubic feet per day.
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Gas is sold on a thermal basis (one therm 100,000 British thermal units). The calorific value of Towngas in the urban area is 455 British thermal units per cubic foot and in the Tsuen Wan area it is 650 BTU per cubic foot. The total quantity of gas sold in 1972 was 10.8 million therms compared with 9.8 million in 1971, an in- crease of 10.2 per cent.
Liquid Petroleum Gas and Kerosene
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a chemical by-product of petroleum. It is stored in steel cylinders under pressure and has a wide range of domestic and indus- trial applications.
Demand for LPG in Hong Kong has greatly increased, because it is cleaner and more convenient to use than kerosene. It is estimated that almost 50 per cent of the population now use LPG for domestic cooking purposes (though many households use both LPG and kerosene, the latter being mainly used for heating water). About 25 to 30 per cent of total LPG sales are to the industrial sector.
When LPG was first introduced to Hong Kong in 1956, sales were about 1,000 lb a year, but within a period of six years, sales of LPG increased to 300,000 lb. Domestic sales for the year are estimated to be 142 million lb. The main suppliers are Shell, Mobil and Esso with Caltex, Gulf, Peninsula, and the Hong Kong and China Gas Co Ltd following closely behind. Supplies for Hong Kong come mainly from the Philippines and Singapore.
The excise duty on both LPG and kerosene was abolished on March 1, 1972. LPG which has a net calorific value of 19,700 BTU/lb now costs 60 cents per one lb.
Kerosene, which is the cheapest domestic fuel, is still very popular and about 600,000 households use it. The retail price of kerosene is $1.80 per gallon, and during the year an estimated 42 million gallons were used, most of which was imported from China, Singapore and the Middle East.