Fiji Gas is the largest LPG end-to-end solutions provider in Fiji, from cooking to auto fuel, maintenance plans, design and project management of energy solutions.
The Chief Inspecting Engineer at the Colonial Sugar Refinery Company brought a blowtorch to Fiji. It was powered by Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). He thought the idea of gas in portable containers was a good one. Fiji Gas can trace its roots to this very humble beginning.
With three other expatriate colleagues he registered the Ready Gas (Fiji) Limited and a business was born.
In September 1956 the WLD Harvie organisation, an early shareholder, took over the running of the business with Sir Hugh Hall Ragg as chairman and director and Mr Roger Probert as its Company Secretary.
The early years were a struggle as LPG was an unknown source of fuel and people were suspicious of this new technology and its use in the home. The company needed to find a way to get used to cooking with gas and to see the benefits. A major breakthrough came when Ready Gas donated gas stoves to many schools in Ba and Lautoka. The stoves were used in home economic classes and students convinced their parents that gas was the best way to cook.
Finding a consistent gas supply was another major problem the fledgling company faced. The first supplies came from Indonesia but this proved erratic as did a supply from California. The LPG industry in Australia was getting started but in the early years it did not prove to be reliable source of competitively priced gas.