COOKING gas is in short supply because there are not enough tankers and safety standards are stricter, and buyers may expect higher prices when supply returns to normal next month, officials said yesterday.

They made the statement even as Unioil cut diesel and kerosene prices by P2 a liter yesterday following last week?s increase in gasoline prices by P0.75 a liter.

Eastern Petroleum announced a peso cut on diesel that took effect at midnight last night.

But the LPG Marketers Association said consumers may expect cooking gas prices to increase by P5 a kilogram, or P55 per 11-kilogram tank, next month because of the increase in the commodity?s international contract price.

Trade Secretary Peter Favila said his department was including liquefied petroleum gas in its list of commodities for monitoring following a request from the Energy Department.

He said the Energy Department normally monitors cooking gas along with gasoline and diesel prices, but it lacked the manpower to do it more effectively.

?There was a blip [cooking gas shortage] due to the limited capacity of tankers and the rigid application of safety standards, but the government is on top of the situation,? Favila said.

?It?s a distribution problem, but supplies should return to normal in the coming days,? he said.

But cooking gas dealers said supply would return to normal only by the middle of next month.

Favila said some suppliers were selling cooking gas at up to P520 per 11-kilogram tank as a result of the shortage, when it should cost only P450 to P490.

Dealers and retailers had earlier denied they were hoarding cooking gas, but there were persistent reports even industrial and commercial customers were hoarding the commodity.

?There is a shortage because bulk suppliers have supply contracts, and these contracts must be served first before the rest of the consumers,? said Zenaida Monsada, director of the Energy Department?s Oil Industry Management Bureau.

?Independent retailers are last in line, and those are the ones serving a larger part of the residential consumers,? she said. Elaine Ramos Alanguilan and Alena Mae S. Flores