KARACHI: Safe and secured environment, availability of infrastructure, trade facilitation and reducing the cost of doing business are the fundamental pre-requisites for the industrial investments.

This was stated by Rasheed Janmohammed, President, Bin Qasim Association of Trade & Industry (BQATI) while welcoming Imran Maniar, Managing Director, SSGC at BQATI office.

Rasheed Janmohammed, President, BQATI while giving his presentation appreciated the realistic approach of the MD, SSGC and his team in the current circumstances when consistent supply of gas is of huge concern.

SSGC efforts of reducing UFG was very much appreciated. Rasheed emphasized that certain methodology needs to be adopted which could enable the industries to operate.

It was requested by BQATI that current policy of twice a week closure of gas is creating lot of impediments particularly for those who are operating continuous industrial units. The President, BQATI also stated that the continuous industrial plants which takes minimum 12 hours to start and similarly 12 hours to shut down, the frequent closure of gas and low pressure are very much detrimental.

BQATI also requested the MD, SSGC to create a facilitation desk in the office of BQATI which the MD, SSGC very kindly agreed that SSGC officials will visit BQATI on weekly/fortnightly basis to resolve issues/complaints of industries.

MD, SSGC while responding to the BQATI presentation briefed the audience.

He explained that SSGC has done extensive work for reducing its line losses (UFG) during last couple of years and managed to reduce UFG by 50% in Karachi and Interior Sindh, however, UFG could not be reduced in Baluchistan due to local condition.

The MD, SSGC stated that: SSGC is facing severe depletion of gas from indigenous sources and the supply has reduced from 1200 mmcfd to 700 mmcfd since 2021.

According to MD, SSGC the long-term solution to this problem is deregulation of gas sector and exploration of indigenous sources of gas as the RLNG supplies are subject to global economic and political conditions and their prices are very volatile.

SSGC has identified around 200 mmcfd of off-spec gas which could be provided to the customers if regulatory restrictions are relaxed.

There is around 3 TCF tight gas reserves available in the country, but it required necessary Government policy to be in place for E&P companies to invest in the project.

Karachi was previously managed through three regions. These regions were divided into 22 zones with customer base of not more than 100,000 and empowered the zonal managers to deal with local issues / conditions effectively and efficiently. Their progress has been closely monitored from their Head Office.

SSGC arranged for complete rehabilitation of network where high incidence of leakage was observed instead of partial leak rectification activities conduced in the past. A major rehabilitation project was completed in DHA.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023