Managing Director, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) said that work for laying 800 kilometre proposed Pak-Iran gas pipeline will hopefully start from next year. He stated this while talking to newsmen at a seminar on 'LPG outlook in Pakistan" held here on Thursday. He said that the Pak Iran Gas Pipelines project has been finalised.
However, no negotiations with Qatar government for import of natural gas are going on, he added. He said that import of gas from Iran is our first and foremost priority and Qatar and Uzbekistan would be considered later on. He said that Pak-Iran gas project would take one year to reach financial close and next year practical work would be started and it would be completed within one year.
He said that in the far-flung area of the country, the sale of the LPG should be encouraged to facilitate the masses. Government should take pragmatic measures to increase the local production of the LPG and its import and it should be provided to the consumers at the subsidised rates.
He said that billion of rupees could be saved by promoting LPG utilisation in the far-flung areas of the country where pipelines of the SNGPL could not be laid. He further said "it is the need of the hour to promote the sale of LPG to cope with the energy crisis and to control rapidly increasing sharp gap between supply and demand of gas in the coming days.
He said that daily production of the LPG is 1600 metric ton while its demand is 10,000MT per day. "Billion of rupees can be saved by providing gas through cylinders instead of pipelines. "LPG can easily be shifted from one place to another without wastage of money" he added. He said that 75 per cent gas production decreased in the winter season while it remained 4MMCF in the summer ultimately industrialists, CNG stations, Power Grid stations had to face gas load shedding in the country particularly and domestic consumers generally.
Jamal Akbar Ansari, Chief Executive Officer of Akbar Associate, speaking on the occasion said that illegal LPG decanting was great hurdle in the way of LPG sale promotion and it was a serious threat to the precious public life and property it must be curbed through the establishment of safe and professional alternative retail channels for the product.
He said that illegal LPG decanting endangers public lives and property otherwise its an environment-friendly and highly safe fuel, he added. He said that LPG Autogas Stations were the only effective means to eradicate illegal LPG decanting.
"LPG Autogas Stations have been officially allowed since September 2005, yet not a single station has been facilitated into operation to date," he added. He said Pakistan's first ever LPG Autogas Station was set up in Lahore last October, but is still pending licensing from the city government.
"It is imperative in the public interest that roadblocks preventing the establishment of such safe and professional retail channels be urgently removed," he said, adding that LPG is used as an automotive fuel in 10 million vehicles world-wide including US, UK, China, India and Sri Lanka.
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