ENG-1979 — Page 209

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PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

Bay and Stanley in the south. Towngas is supplied throughout Kowloon including Kwun Tong and the rapidly developing area of north-east Kowloon. In the New Territories, the area of supply includes Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan and the neighbouring island of Tsing Yi. Towngas is also supplied throughout Sha Tin.

The company's production station is located at Ma Tau Kok in Kowloon. Hong Kong Island is supplied by four submarine pipelines laid under Victoria Harbour. Towngas is produced in six modern cyclic naphtha reforming plants, with a total installed capacity of 935,000 cubic metres a day. Two additional units, each rated at 283,000 cubic metres a day, are now under construction and are scheduled to be commissioned early in 1980. Towngas is distributed at a heat value of 17.27 MJ/m3 and a specific gravity of approximately 0.56. Gas is sold on a thermal basis (one therm=105.5 megajoules). Towngas sales in 1979 amounted to 28.6 million therms (three million gigajoules) compared with 23.7 million therms (2.5 million gigajoules) in 1978.

The basic price of Towngas increased by 30 cents to $5 a therm in October. This was attributed to increased material and operating costs and the decline in the value of the Hong Kong dollar.

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