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The Sui-Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) management has suspended gas supply to general industrial units and reduced the gas to textile units from eight hours a day to 4 hours a day owing to serious gas shortage which has reached 1.1 Billion Cubic feet per Day (BCFD) mark.
According to senior officials of the SNGPL with the start of the winter the gas shortfall on the network of the company has reached 1.1 BCFD against 800 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) in October and this gap will reach at 1.8 BCFD in December so the company will not be in a position to maintain gas supply to industry and CNG sector in the province.
"The SNGPL is the largest gas distribution company stretched to two province Punjab and Khyber Paktunkhwa (KP) and serving over 4 million consumers. In Punjab domestic sector's gas consumption has reached around 950 MMCFD, while in KP total demand stands at 350 MMCFD. There is no gas suspension to any sector in KP as it was a gas producing province which stands at 350-370 MMCFD," the official said.
However, the official added that in January it is expected that gas supply to CNG stations of KP maybe reduced from 7-day a week to 4 days a week as a result of severe cold which will lead to additional gas usage by domestic sector. "The SNGPL in winter will hardly manage to cater the gas needs of the domestic sector owing to serious gas shortage. To ensure smooth gas supply to domestic and commercial consumers, the Petroleum Ministry has directed the SNGPL management to cut gas supply of general industry and other consumers," the official added.
The government has compensated the textile industrial units of the province where hundreds of thousands of people are working by assuring them of uninterrupted power supply during the winter season. However, an estimated 2000,000 people associated with CNG filling stations will lose their jobs for four months. Pakistan has started importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Qatar in March 2015 and the government has allowed owners of CNG stations to import LNG for the sector, but at present all the imported LNG is being supplied to Independent Power Plants (IPPs) and some of the fertiliser plans.
The government has planned to take LNG imports to 2.4 BCFD within next three years to bridge the overall gas demand/supply gap, which at present is hovering around 1.8 BCFD and in winter is expected to cross 2.5 BCFD mark.
Due to serious gas shortage, the government has cut gas supply to three fertiliser plants on the system of the SNGPL. Out of total national gas production of 4.2 BCFD 2.7 BCFD is distributed through the networks of the SNGPL and SSGC. The SNGPL is getting a total 1.4 BCFD of gas of which some of the quantity is dedicated to power houses, while SSGC is getting 1.3 BCFD. The SNGPL has suspended the supply of LNG to CNG stations of the province one month ago, but the CNG station owners are paying their share for all the LNG ships, an official of Director General (DG) gas of Ministry of Petroleum said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015

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