Sengkang residents complain of gas pressure disruption lasting almost 2 hours

SINGAPORE – Some residents in Sengkang woke up to a slow-cooking Sunday (Dec 22) when they found their gas supply struggling to power up their breakfast.

Residents TODAY spoke with said they noticed something amiss with their gas supply from about 9am, when the fires on their gas stove was "very, very small".

Utilities company SP Group confirmed it received reports of low gas pressure in parts of Sengkang on Sunday morning and deployed officers to the affected areas to investigate the matter.

It is not known how many households were affected, but SP Group’s spokesperson said gas pressure normalised from 1045am onwards. “We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this incident,” the spokesperson added.

Following reports of the low gas pressure incidents, SP Group said it had put up public advisories on its Facebook and Twitter feeds. 

Some residents told TODAY they had to spend a much longer time preparing meals, or change their plans, as a result of the situation.

A 77-year-old housewife who only gave her name as Mdm Lim said the fire was “very, very small” and she was worried as she was cooking food meant for religious offerings and was going to make tang yuan – a Chinese glutinous rice flour dessert – for the winter solstice, which fell on Sunday.

Mdm Lim said she eventually managed to finish her cooking three hours later, when she would normally be done in an hour. “Hopefully there won’t be such problems during Chinese New Year… It’s important for us Chinese to make food for the offerings,” she said.

Similarly, another Sengkang resident, Mr Raja Pavan, 37, said his wife who was making mashed potatoes for their children ended up taking 30 minutes for a task that would ordinarily have taken 5 minutes because she had to contend with a very small flame on the stove.

On what caused the low gas pressure, SP Group said it is still under investigation.