Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company Ltd, (SNGPL) and Sapphire Electric Company Ltd, (SECL) on Thursday signed a gas sales agreement (GSA), under which the former will supply 38 MMCFD gas to the latter.
Rashid Lone, managing director, SNGPL, and Shahid Abdullah, director SECL, inked the agreement on behalf of their respective sides. Under the agreement SECL will set up a 225MW power plant between Sheikhupura and Muridke at SNGPL system. According to SNGPL, this is the second GSA, which it has signed recently with an independent power producer (IPP).
Earlier, it added, a similar agreement was signed by the company with Orient Power for supply of 38 MMCFD gas to generate 225MW power. Orient Power is setting up the power plant near Baloki.
According to a spokesman of SNGPL, President and Prime Minister of Pakistan have held several meetings with energy companies to develop a strategy to meet energy crisis in future. There are several power projects under planning for power generation based on hydel, gas, cola liquid fuels and power generation through windmills, he added.
SNGPL, he maintained, is required to sign GSA with four power converters namely, Orient Power, SECL, Saif Energy and Hallmore Power. All these power plants are expected to produce 225MW each and will be located in the Punjab in the triangle areas of Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Lahore. The supply of gas to these power plants will come through by diverting gas from existing power plants at Muzaffargarh and Kot Addu. These plants, being relatively less efficient, would be using liquid fuels instead of gas. According to SNGPL, the gas will be used by the new IPPs, which are more efficient state-of-the-art plants.