The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has no natural gas demand management plan other than loadshedding and increasing gas prices. Muhammad Ijaz Chaudhary, Secretary Petroleum Ministry while talking to Business Recorder on natural gas demand-supply situation said that when CNG stations were opened after three-day closure, it created low gas pressure for domestic consumers.
He said especially in those areas where a number of CNG stations were operating domestic consumers were unable to get normal gas pressure. He admitted that the All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) had made CNG a political issue and the Ministry was powerless to take any remedial step because public transporters were also supporting it.
The government had recently increased the gas prices for all the consumers from 13.6 percent to 207 percent, but increasing gas prices would not resolve the problem.
The government was trying to improve future gas supply situation through import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), besides initiating the construction of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, but all of these measures would take many years to complete, while the country needed immediate decisions. It is needed alongside a host of other energy sources including Thar Coal, hydel, nuclear, green, LNG, biomass etc to meet the growing demand.
Pakistan switched its industries and vehicles to gas without taking into account domestic availability. As per official figures SNGPL at present is facing up to 658 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) gas shortage, which in March is expected to decline to 408 Mmcfd. While Sui-Southern Gas Company (SSGC) at present is facing a gas shortfall of 300 MMCFD, which next month would decline to 260 MMCFD.
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