President Business Forum Punjab (BFP) Ibrahim Qureshi has expressed concern over growing share of oil in the energy mix requirement of the country. He said that the gas contribution to energy mix decreased to 48 percent in 2011 from 50 percent in 2006. The contribution of oil in energy requirements increased from 28 percent in FY06 to 32 percent in FY11.
Despite acute shortage of gas in FY11, government's allocation of available supplies to domestic sector was on the top priority with 6 percentile supplies against previous year, he said. Conversely, he added, the power sector which consumed almost 27 percent of total country's gas, received 8 percent lower supplies, which was thought to have also restricted overall electricity generation.
Moreover, he pointed out, general industries that contribute 23 percent of total country's gas also faced reduced supply. Similarly, the gas supply to the CNG sector has increased by 14 percent in FY11 while supply to the fertiliser sector has been increased by 4 percent. The president BFP said the prevailing state of affairs demands determination to fix energy crisis, which was hitting the industrial growth particularly in the province of Punjab. He said one way of tackling the issue could be a ban on power generation by the general industry through Captive Power Plants. He said that a majority of the CPPs were highly inefficient and consume more gas to produce electricity as compared to the government owned power generation companies.
According to him, the available gas for power generation should be diverted to the government owned generation companies with a guarantee of uninterrupted power supply to the general industry against their withdrawal from power generation through CPPs.
He said a good number of large scale manufacturing units, particularly in textile spinning industry, were closed down due to the energy crisis. Rest of the industry was relying upon the gas dependent CPPs, which again was diminishing with every passing day.
The president BFP also urged the government to expedite import of LNG project besides import of gas from Iran. He said abnormal rise in oil prices was also triggering inflation in the country leading to high mark up loans and eventually low investment. There was an urgent need for creating a million jobs annually, which was not possible until fresh investment on globally competitive mark up rates was on ground, he added. Qureshi expressed the hope that the federal government would come up with tangible solution to the power crisis. Also, he urged upon the provincial governments to cooperate with the federal government in energy conservation as well as efficient power generation in the larger national interest.