ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division will provide a new guideline to the board of directors of both gas companies, the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd (SNGPL) and the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), on installation of new gas connections to those consumers who deposited installation fee before the moratorium, sources said.

The federal government has put ban on all types of new gas connections in December 2021 due to the prevailing gas shortage in the country.

Both the state-owned gas companies, the SNGPL and the SSGC, have added 387,712 new gas connections to their networks during 2021-22. The total target of new connections for the Sui companies was 437,326 during the ongoing fiscal.

The next fiscal, the target for the SNGPL new connections is 403,050, which includes 400,000 domestic connections, 2,800 commercial consumers, and 250 industrial connections.

For the SSGC, the target for total number of new connections during the financial year 2022-23 is 134,020, which includes 133,010 domestic consumers, 775 commercial consumers, and 235 industrial connections.

The unaccounted for gas (UFG) of the SSGC is 15 percent against the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) benchmark of 6.3 percent. The officials of the SSGC claim that 10 percent of total losses is result of 700,000 illegal connections in Karachi and Balochistan is another area where losses are huge. It is equal to loss of 10 bcf gas.

Whereas, the UFG in the SNGPL system is lower as the gas company has succeeded in reducing the losses in Karak (KP). The gas theft in Karak was 15 bcf which has reduced to 7 bcf or Rs10 billion after the completion of first phase-2,700 km gas pipeline and gasification of 260 villages and 6,000 new gas connections have been installed.

The gas companies have projected UFG at 8.24 percent and 13.86 percent respectively, for the financial year 2022-23 against the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) benchmark of 6.5 percent at distribution system.

The regulator has taken decision on the petitions of both gas companies regarding the determination of estimated revenue requirements (DERR) for the financial year 2022-23.

The authority observed that in transmission network losses have mostly remained around 0.5 percent in case of both the gas utilities for network of the SNGPL and the SSGCL, however, losses in the distribution segment of the SNGPL have always remained high.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022