Prices of liquefied petroleum gas will increase significantly this coming Monday, possibly be the biggest one-time hike for the sensitive commodity in nearly two years.

LPG Marketers Association President Arnel Ty said the forthcoming increase on cooking gas was due to the $77 per metric ton climb in world contract prices intended for the month of September.

Ty said this would translate to a domestic increase of between P4 and R5 per kilo of LPG. Trading for September contract prices still has a few days to go.

The last time the LPGMA enforced a hike as hefty as P5 a kilo or P55 for every standard 11-kilo cylinder was back in November 1, 2007, when international prices also made a huge jump from the previous month.

Ty failed to specify whether the anticipated P4 to P5 per kilo hike is a one-time adjustment or a part of a series of price increases slated for September.

Local cooking gas prices have been fluctuating in the past months. On July 1, the LPGMA padded their prices by P3 a kilo. Starting the month of August, the group of independent dealers slashed P10 from their prices, resulting to its current price of P478 per cylinder.

Meanwhile, Energy Undersecretary Roy Kyamko appealed to LPG dealers and retailers to avoid selling substandard or under-filled tanks.

This developed as the Department of Energy revealed it has confiscated over 6,800 LPG tanks in a storage facility on Sumulong Highway, Sta. Cruz, Antipolo City that were deemed defective, under-filled or not properly marked by dealers.

Kyamko, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on the Security of Energy Facilities and Enforcement of Energy Laws and Standards, said they have charged in court 28 LPG who have not been adhering to existing safety standards.

Twenty-one of those cases are nearing resolution in the prosecutors’ level, he added.