My Daftest Question To Date. Lpg

[barry1010]

I'm watching Rip Off Britain.

People are complaining about the cost of the LPG that is delivered to their tanks.

I have friends who have had their domestic oil stolen from their tank (twice).

Can LPG be stolen from domestic tanks? 

Curious Clueless, The Midlands

[douglas9401]

Not without a massive fit of the vapours.

[Buenchico]

It would be hard to steal gas from a dedicated tank, such as one of these:
https://www.flogas.co.uk/home/domestic-bulk-tanks

(It would be the equivalent of trying to steal natural gas by tapping into supply in the meter cupboard outside your home. i.e. very difficult to do and extremely dangerous too).

However many park home owners (etc) use either propane cylinders 
https://www.boconline.co.uk/shop/en/uk/propane-cylinder
or refillable LPG cylinders (which can be filled anywhere that Autogas is sold)
https://www.gaslowdirect.com/product-category/gaslow-refillable-gas-cylinders/
In such cases, a thief would simply steal the entire cylinder, rather than just its contents, as the lady who runs a burger van up the road from me knows only too well!

[Buenchico]

The cylinders can often be more attractive to thieves than the gas within them:
https://www.politicshome.com/members/article/uklpg-hails-cylinder-theft-prosecution-as-positive-news-for-safety

[barry1010]

I know that the cylinders are very attractive to thieves.

I just assumed that because the gas was put into the big tank from a tanker, it could be taken out again. After all, it was taken from somewhere and put into the tanker.

[renegadefm]

My parents had heating oil stolen from their tank when oil prices rocketed a few years ago. 

They just syphoned it out, apologies for the spelling. 

[barry1010]

That's what happened to my friend, the night after the tank was filled

[Buenchico]

^^^  The gas in a propane cylinder, or in a domestic LPG storage tank, is pumped in there under pressure.

If you simply connected a domstic LPG tank to whatever type of cylinder you were hoping to fill from it, the transfer of gas would quickly come to a halt as soon as the pressures inside each of the two vessels equalised.  So you'd get very little gas in the cylinder.  It simply wouldn't be worth the effort.

Without the necessary specialist pumping equipment, stealing a large amount of LPG wouldn't be possible.

[renegadefm]

barry1010, 

Yes my parents oil was stolen the very next night the tank was filled. 

The police at the time actually thought it might be connected to the oil supplier. But we never solved the issue.