Demand, supply of natural gas: SNGPL expects 850 million cubic feet shortfall

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) Managing Director, Rashid A. Lone, has said they are anticipating a shortfall of 850 million cubic feet in the demand and supply of the natural gas during the coming winter season.
'Last year, the shortfall was 700 million cubic feet and due to new domestic connections and increase in CNG consumption, it might increase to 850 million cubic feet this year,' Lone told reporters after a ceremony arranged here on Thursday by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) for the launching of Energy Management System in the textile industry.
SNGPL Managing Director also said that closure of Qadirpur Gas field for annual maintenance and connection of some new drilled well with the supply line would also cause shortage of gas from October 11 to 27. The Industry had already been informed in this regard.
He said that provision of gas to the domestic consumers would be the top priority of the Company during the shortage period. Nevertheless, he also asked the domestic consumers not to use gas heaters, geysers and also reduce usage of CNG to help bridge the gap between the demand and supply.
Regarding new gas tariff, he said that new tariff had been notified from July 01, this year and under it consumers falling in first three slabs would not have to face increased bills, but later stages would feel the burden. He said that consumers falling in the seventh slab would have billed double than those of falling in the third slab. He advised the consumers to keep their heaters off and also keep geysers and other gas appliances in order.
About pilferage of gas, Lone said that it was very low in the domestic sector but commercial users do indulge in it. He said they have a continuous process of making raids on information and taking action against guilty persons such as levying fines or disconnection.
Earlier, speaking at the launching ceremony, Lone said that the country was facing heavy electricity and gas shortage and the immediate step to avoid difficulties was to conserve energy. He said SNGPL was making various arrangements such as import of gas from Iran, LNG, more drilling etc. But all this would take time. He said that around 3000 million cubic feet gas was being provided besides 1000 million cubic feet directly being supplied to fertiliser plants. There were some 3.1 million domestic and 45,000 commercial consumers.
He said that the demand was increasing at a rate of 10 to 12 percent per annum while the supply was increasing at 3 to 3.5 percent per annum. He said that there was no major discovery except one in NWFP, which would be available for supply in April 2009. He also said that there was a need for enhancing exploration activities, developing coal, developing alternate energy resources, importing gas etc.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda), Shahid Rashid in his address threw light on various steps taken by the authority in collaboration with the textile sector, German institution GTZ, National Productivity Organisation (NPO) and Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) for conservation of energy.
Principal Advisor of GTZ, Ulrich Stoehr Grabowski said that objective of Energy Management System was improving capacities/capabilities of the public and private sector to implement activities of energy efficiency in SMEs and selection of institution to have strategies for increasing energy efficiency. He also threw light on presence of GTZ in Pakistan and said it was working in different areas such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, infrastructure management, health, education and gender.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Akbar Sheikh said that the objective of Energy Management System was to conserve national resources, reduce cost of production, protect environment, achieving competitiveness, capacity building and industry-academia collaboration. He said that through this system 5-10 percent energy saving potential with no additional investment, and 10-15 percent energy saving potential with nominal additional investment.
He said this system had been implemented in Thailand's textile industry, palm oil mills, tapioca starch industry and energy efficiency was improved by 20-30 percent. Same is the success registered by India in many industrial sectors such as textile, pulp and paper, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and agro-industry.
He said that in first cycle of one year under this programme, 20 industries would be selected and their energy manager would be trained through GTZ and University of Engineering and Technology co-operation to implement the energy conservation plans.