Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that under the influence of seasonal factors, consumption of Electricity decreased by 12.1% over the previous quarter to 736 million kWh in the first quarter of 2011, of which consumption by the Business sector decreased by 13.1% to 575 million kWh (Gaming sector shared 48.0%) and that by Households went down by 4.9% to 128 million kWh. Imports of Electricity dropped by 21.2% quarter-to-quarter to 476 million kWh in the first quarter of 2011, bringing its relative importance to available supply down from 70.0% in the previous quarter to 62.3%. Local generation of Electricity totalled 300 million kWh, up by 10.6% quarter-to-quarter. Imports of Natural Gas for electricity generation increased by 26.6% from the previous quarter to 53.55 million cubic metres in the first quarter. In the first quarter of 2011, consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) increased by 14.4% quarter-to-quarter to 12,417 tonnes, of which consumption by the Business sector (8,477 tonnes) and Households (3,868 tonnes) rose by 16.4% and 10.5% respectively. Meanwhile, imports of LPG increased by 25.0% from the previous quarter to 13,306 tonnes, with the average price of imports rising by 7.5% to MOP9.05 per kg. On account of higher prices of imports, the selling price of all types of fuels increased further in the first quarter of 2011; the average price of Unleaded Gasoline rose by 9.3% from MOP10.36 per litre in the fourth quarter of 2010 to MOP11.32 per litre, while that of Bottled LPG increased by 7.5% to MOP14.57 per kg. At the end of the first quarter of 2011, stock of LPG (3,047 tonnes), Gas oil & diesel (23.07 million litres) and Fuel Oil (13.18 million litres) registered quarter-to-quarter increase of 44.2%, 9.1% and 4.1% respectively.
