In a bid to supply natural gas to every nook and corner of the country, the government has provided a record 1.4 million new domestic gas connections to the people during the past five years.
"The past governments were able to give 3.4 million gas connections to domestic consumers prior to year 2002," official sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources said here on Friday. The industrial connections were increased from 4,434 to 7,756 while commercial connections from 46,113 to 67,647 in the above mentioned period.
Giving other details about performance of the petroleum sector especially the gas sector, he said sale of gas has increased from 1,411 million cubic feet per day to 3,351 million cubic feet per day.
He said the number of cities and towns connected with national gas network has enhanced from 1,414 to 2,552 in five years which is also a record. About transmission and distribution system, he said the length of transmission lines has increased to 10,023 kilometers from 7,444 kilometers in 2002. The distribution system has extended to 83,105 kilometers from 56,208 kilometers, he added.
About performance of CNG sector, he said, so far, 1.5 million vehicles have been converted to this cheap and environment friendly fuel. The numbers of CNG stations have reached 1,834 across the country and Pakistan is the second largest country after Argentina in this sector.
Regarding use of LPG, he informed that present production of LPG is about 1,650 ton per day while its demand is 5,000 tons per day and shortfall is covered by its import. About production, he said that 70 percent of natural gas is coming from Sindh province while share of gas in the energy mix is 54 percent.
He said in view of gas shortfall in future owing to growing demands, the government is considering to bring gas through transnational gas pipelines. For this purpose, the discussions are being undertaken on the Pakistan-Iran-India gas pipeline project, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline and Qatar-Pakistan gas pipeline project.