CNG stations' owners have announced to keep their gas stations shut in the provincial capital on Saturday, to enable Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) ensure smooth supply to the domestic consumers being affected owing to growing demands and less supply caused by the shilling weather.
"We have voluntarily decided to shutdown CNG stations in Lahore for one day to ease supply to domestic consumers and help the SNGPL to bridge existing demand and supply gap," Captain Shuja Anwarn (Retd), Vice President, All Pakistan CNG Association, told Business Recorder.
However, he opined, that the company could not be able to meet the existing shortfall unless it stops supply to the industries, with which the company had a contract of supply for only nine months. He urged the SNGPL to implementation its agreement with the industrial sector and let them go for alternate arrangements so that smooth supply to the domestic consumers could be ensured.
"The SNGPL was supplying gas to industries in violation of its own agreement with the industrial sector," he remarked. SNGPL cannot meet the demands of all sectors in the prevailing situation, therefore, it must accord priority to the domestic consumer, he urged.
"Consumers of the CNG stations are also domestic consumer and the utility must not differentiate between the two and continue uninterrupted supply to the CNG stations," he pleaded. He said that SNGCL on Friday stopped supply to 28 CNG stations in Lahore while it had already disconnected supply for an indefinite period to a number of stations in Peshawar and Faisalabad.
Shuja Anwar further said that his association representatives in a meeting with SNGPL high-ups on Friday discussed their problems and conveyed to them about their decision to voluntarily shut CNG stations in the provincial capital.
"We will keep our CNG stations closed on Saturday and then meet the SNGPL authorities again on Monday to convince them for discontinuation of supply to the industries as we understand it is the only way to provide relief to the domestic consumers," he added.
Meanwhile, an spokesman of SNGPL said that in view of severe cold wave, the existing gap between supply and demand of gas had further widened resulting in curtailment of gas to several industrial units of Punjab and NWFP. He said SNGPL is contemplating curtailment of gas supply to CNG sector on " as and when" basis.
As soon as the cold wave subsides, SNGPL will be in a position to restore gas supplies to its valued customers. He also thanked the industrial consumers for their co-operation in managing the crisis. He also clarified that supply to CNG sector has not been suspended so far rather it is being judicially managed.
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