A new, 24-hour, LPG service station has opened in Leicester to satisfy the demand for gas, as fuel prices surge.

Flogas – the second largest supplier in the UK, behind Calor, in the £800 million-a-year market – already had an outlet in the East Midlands city. But as sales soared, long queues were forming and a decision was made to close that site and create a new one nearby.

The company – whose UK headquarters is in Leicestershire -has invested £130,000 to install two pumps in the Ravensbridge Drive forecourt, close to the city centre, which will provide round-the-clock gas, with customers able to use credit cards at the pumps to speed things up.

Four delivery trucks from a Birmingham site have been relocated to Leicester, with orders being taken to customers’ business premises and homes. The station has also created six new jobs and includes a shop selling gas cylinders and other equipment.

Flogas managing director, Henry Cubbon, said: “Our previous site opened only eight hours a day and we found that long queues were developing, with people getting agitated, so we decided we needed a bigger site.”

The company’s latest figures show profits rising 10-fold to £9.8 million in the 12 months to March 2009.