Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand said yesterday that this abolition would relieve the Oil Fund and refineries of subsidies. Meanwhile, it would lift the gas price and discourage taxis and motorists in general from using the gas in their vehicles. As such, they would switch to natural gas for vehicles (NGV), which is safer and would be cheaper once the LPG price is floated.

"The world gas price will dictate when we'll be ready to float the LPG price," he said.

Promoting the use of NGV is part of the ministry's key policies next year. Piyasvasti announced that in regulating the energy industry, the ministry would focus on four areas: promoting energy stability, restructuring the energy business, promoting alternative fuels, and energy saving.

Next year, the ministry would speed up the purchase of power from independent power producers. "Some business operators. who receive environment assessment certificates, could have an advantage over others, but as we are buying the power every three years, other operators have ample time to obtain the certificates and join the system later," he said.

Meanwhile, the ministry will issue new petroleum exploration licenses for 60 fields early next year and work out a plan to boost gasohol and biodiesel consumption to 17 million litres a day in 2011, or 20 per cent of total consumption.

Energy Reporters

The Nation