Fiji will be self-sufficient in the supply of oxygen as Petroleum and Gas Company (Fiji) Pte Limited, trading as Blue Gas, revealed plans to set up a high purity oxygen plant in Lautoka, yesterday.

This is expected to reduce the costs of importation of oxygen by Government and will also see Fiji being the supplier of oxygen to neighboring Pacific Island countries.

The setup of the multi-million dollar oxygen generating plant, which will include the latest technology and laboratory, will be done through the sourcing of experts from Europe.

In a press conference at the Blue Gas head office in Vuda, the managing director of Blue Gas, Ajai Punja highlighted that the oxygen plant would be completed within three months.

The oxygen plant will generate oxygen for medical and industrial use with purity of up to 99.7 per cent.

“At Blue Gas we will be setting up a new Air Separating Unit (ASU) and we will be producing medical-grade and industrial grade oxygen,” said Mr Punja.

“We intend to start straight away towards the end of the year and currently all the oxygen is all imported.”

He said the plant would be able to cater for the Fijian market and possibly replace importation of oxygen from Australia and New Zealand or other countries.

He added Blue Gas looked at exporting oxygen to other Pacific Island countries at competitive prices.

“The cost of shipping goods has gone up by two or three folds.”

He said when the high purity oxygen plant would be set up with the raw materials available in the country, there would not be any importation needed.

“So, it will be affordable for everybody,” he said.

“Currently we will set up the factory here and the plant is big enough to cater for the Fiji demand right now and we are in the process of doing our LPG terminal in Lami right now.”

He said a lab would also be designed to ensure that the purity of the oxygen is maintained.

New Jobs
While Blue Gas currently employs 140 staff, the setup of the new oxygen plant is expected to employ about 15 to 20 more individuals.

“We are in uncertain times right now and people have been laid off from work.

“But with the current COVID pandemic, we need the oxygen, the medical people need it.” he added.

“We are in difficult times but we are here to stay.”

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