KARACHI: SSGC is supplying indigenous gas supplies to KE on best endeavour basis on the orders of the Sindh High Court. In the said order, KE was also directed to make payments to SSGC regularly. Effective April 2018, SSGC started supplying RLNG to KE in addition to indigenous gas to meet their requirements as per the decision of Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE).

In the said CCoE decision, no threshold of quantities was defined. At that point in time, SSGC verbally agreed with some volume of indigenous gas, which was based on the then demand and supply numbers, which currently cannot be demanded.

It is pertinent to mention that in the last three years, there has been a sharp depletion of indigenous gas supplies to SSGC which has witnessed a dent of almost 278 MMCFD gas, i.e. reduction from 1,159 MMCFD in April 2018 to 881 MMCFD in May 2022. Besides this, the allocation / supply of RLNG from SNGPL quota to SSGC which was around 150 MMCFD last year has been reduced to 75 MMCFD this year.

SSGC is supplying almost 100 percent RLNG it gets to meet the requirements of KE because of its inability to supply indigenous gas any more to the latter. Recently, in clear violation of the orders of the SHC, KE defaulted in payment of its last bill and an amount of Rs2.46 billion is now overdue. Another payment of Rs8.6 billion will become due on June 3, 2022. It is clear that if KE default persists, SSGC will have no option but to either reduce or curtail gas supplies to KE.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022