Government will disconnect the supply of gas to cement factories and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) having alternative arrangements of furnace oil under the Gas Load Management Programme. Sources in Petroleum Ministry revealed that a summary regarding the Gas Load Management Programme for the current winter season would be tabled before the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet scheduled on Tuesday next week.
The country is expected to face a gas shortfall of 500 to 850 million cubic feet per day during peak hours of the current winter season. They said shortfall will be shared by the cement, IPPs and textile sectors to ensure the gas supply to the sectors of priorities. The domestic consumers, fertiliser sector and IPPs that had no alternative arrangement will be priorities of the government in the gas load management programme.
The government would not supply gas to the sectors, which have alternative arrangements of furnace oil. The gas supply will be ensured only to the sectors which government had agreements with.
Sources said that government had no agreement with the cement sector to provide gas in the winter season and therefore they would not be supplied gas under the Gas Load Management Programme.
Sources said that government was of the view that furnace oil prices had fallen and therefore cement sector should use alternative resources of furnace oil to operate their plants to substitute gas supply. They said that some IPPs had also alternative arrangements of furnace oil and government would cut gas supply to them. However, the final decision would be made by the ECC that would meet on Tuesday next week under the chair of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, sources added.
The country will experience four fold higher demand of gas due to hike in consumption of gas for domestic geysers and heaters. The requirement of gas for domestic consumers hasis increased six times in Quetta. The country has 5.1 million domestic consumers of gas. The government would continue gas supply to the domestic consumers. According to the proposal of Petroleum Ministry, fertiliser sector would be exempted from the gas load shedding.
Under this programme, government would give fourth priority to the general industrial, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sector and captive powers producers of export oriented textiles recommended by Textile Ministry.
The total production of gas in the coming month will be 4031 MMCFD that would be followed by 4390 MMCFD in the month of January. The gas production in the month of February and March will stand at 4228 MMCFD and 4339 MMCFD respectively. The government will provide 355 MMCFD to the fertiliser sector so that farmers do not face shortage of fertiliser in the current Rabbi crop season.