Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has formally initiated Rs 25 billion five year programme for controlling the company's unaccounted for gas (UFG) or line losses. The World Bank will provide funding of $115 million for this project, out of which $105 million has been earmarked for gas pipeline and affiliated infrastructure improvement and $10 million for appliance efficiency pilot project.
The company's unaccounted for gas (UFG) or line losses has increased to 8 percent, three percent higher than the benchmark set by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra). The 50-year old pipelines and theft are two major causes of the company's UFG, managing director of SSGC Dr Faizullah Abbasi said while talking to selected media persons here on Friday.
He said that the company's increasing line losses or UFG are mainly due to ageing gas supply infrastructure, losses in gas measurement, gas theft and inefficient utilisation of gas by end-users. About the area-wise UFG situation, he told that the company is facing 41 percent line losses in Karachi, 30 percent in the other parts of Sindh and 29 percent in Balochistan.
He said that a comprehensive five-year programme has been prepared which is focused on replacement of old pipeline and betterment of pipeline infrastructure, introduction of automatic pressure management and improvement of measurement system. He said that some major steps for controlling UFG include replacement of approximately 3,350 kilometres gas pipeline and other affiliated tasks like pressure management, overhead leakage rectification, measurement system improvement and prevention of gas theft. He said that the company has prepared short-term, medium term and long term strategies for controlling UFG.
He was optimistic that after proper implementation of the short and medium term components of the UFG reduction strategy, the UFG situation will improve and the company will be able to bring down UFG substantially. He pointed out that the major portion of current year budget of SSGC has been allocated for reduction of UFG. The current year budget has been declared as "UFG-Budget" as all non-development spending has been cut and more funds allocated for controlling UFG.
He said that the company would have to pay Rs 3 billion, as penalty this year as the UFG level is three percent higher than the Ogra benchmark. He pointed out that the company has distributed the network in small operational units to further improve its performance and to control UFG. He mentioned that Karachi has been divided into three zones and under these zones small operational units have been formed to provide better services with minimum line losses.
He said that board of directors of the company has constituted a committee to monitor UFG situation. "We have set up a permanent and efficient system to monitor UFG situation in different zones on permanent basis so that proper measures can be taken in this regard", he added. Regarding administrative steps, he said small units have been set up with the objective to ensure consumer satisfaction and to control UFG. Responding a query, he said that increasing consumer network could not be a cause to further increase UFG ratio.
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