Gas for industries during winter: government working on a rotational formula

The government is working on a rotational formula for all industries, including textiles, to supply gas on weekly basis to overcome the gas shortfall during winter. According to sources, under the rotational formula, the government will ask industrialists to divide the industrial estates into different zones.
Under this plan, all industrial units including textile sector would face weekly holiday in gas provision on rotational basis during the whole winter season and there would be no long suspension of gas supply to industrial units, as happened in the past, sources said.
"The government will supply gas to one industrial zone on one-week rotation, that will be followed by another industrial zone for gas supply", sources said, adding that in this way every industrial zone would get supply of gas after one week. During the previous winter, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources had proposed one-day weekly gas holiday for different industrial sectors. However, during at that time many industrial units closed for lengthy periods.
Independent power producers (IPPs) have gas supply agreements with gas utilities including Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline (SNGPL) and these will continue, sources said. However, other IPPs that have not entered into gas supply agreements with gas utilities will get supply of gas on availability basis, they added.
Sources said that the government would follow Natural Gas Allocation and Management Policy 2005 that gives priority to domestic consumers, and there would be no gas load shedding for them. During the previous winter, the government had given top priority to domestic consumers. The government is also considering a proposal to suspend gas supply to the compressed natural gas (CNG) stations for three months to curtail the gas shortfall. However, sources said that this proposal appears to be difficult to implement.
CNG dealers' association has already strongly opposed this proposal, saying that it would have a negative impact on their business. Gas utilities have also planned load shedding in winter season and SNGPL wants to suspend gas supply to CNG stations in Punjab and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) from November 15. It is of the view that it would face shortfall of 850 million cubic feet gas. CNG industry believes that any decision to suspend gas taken by the government would destroy the industry.
At present, there are 3,000 CNG stations across the country, providing fuel to 2.4 million consumers. Any attempt to suspend gas supply to CNG stations would imply that CNG consumers would have to look for alternative fuelling sources which may generate considerable anger within the general public, market sources said. Additionally, the government would have to import more petrol, which is costlier than gas.