KARACHI, Aug 21: Many industries in the city, especially in the Korangi Industrial Area, are facing the problem of low gas pressure which is affecting their functioning.

According to sources, gas pipeline pressure has reduced to four per square inch, and about 90 per cent of the factories in the area are hit by this problem.

M/s Sunlight Wood is among those affected by the low pressure because of high losses in distribution of gas, and has complained almost daily, but to no avail.

There are also complaints of low pressure from some domestic consumers.

It may be pointed out that the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited had suffered losses worth millions and damage to appliances due to failure of the utility to remove debris of heavy construction material from the recently constructed pipeline, prior to its commissioning, sources said.

This was one of the causes of low pressure of the gas supplied to consumers.

The debris is still traveling with the gas and damaging all installations downstream, they added.

According to insiders, the problem cropped up following commissioning of a new pipeline in July last year. As the debris and dust was not removed from the pipeline before commissioning, valves, regulators, filter separators, filter and expensive components worth millions of rupees have been damaged. The standard practice is to remove this unwanted debris from the pipeline by releasing clean water with high pressure to remove all impurities left inside.

This left-over debris, which also contains a sizeable percentage of iron particles has travelled to different compressor stations. Millions of dollars worth of high technology meters installed at factory and power station have been damaged, said the insiders.

Despite this complaint, no investigation was carried out to determine why debris was not removed prior to commissioning and why the contractor was paid the amount if he had not followed the specified methods of removing impurities from the pipeline before commissioning.

Due to this negligence on part of the department concerned, the pipeline was also being damaged as these foreign elements are moving with the gas at high speed and pressure.

This was despite the fact that the matter was taken up by the DG Measurement on Sept 18 last year when heavy dust/carbon in distribution system of SITE, City Area, Hub and Landhi Korangi areas was detected, sources said.

TARRIF ISSUE: Meanwhile, industry is restive over upward increase in tariff by the SSGC which has allegedly not given credible and satisfactory explanation to a very high percentage of expenses for unaccounted for gas (UFG).

According to credible sources, UFG had surged to 10.5 per cent in February this year, which was in sharp contrast to the benchmark set by Ogra.

Experts said if UFG is controlled, the utility would not have to increase the tariff.

The federal government is also being asked to look into the matter. They also demanded a thorough investigation into infrastructure development expenditure of the company.

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REVENUE SHORTFALL: The SSGCL in its petition to Ogra had projected a shortfall in the revenue requirement for FY 2008-09 at Rs26,625 million, seeking an increase by Rs69.37 per mmbtu from July 1 in its average prescribed price. But in the foot-note of one of the annexure of the petition, the SSGC maintained that upward adjustment of Rs69.37 per mmbtu for FY 2008-09 has been reworked to Rs90.05 per mmbtu with the consideration that effect of price increase is not felt by domestic customers and feedstock of fertilizer industry.

UFG TARGETS: It may be pointed out that in its decision of Sept 14, 2007, Ogra had fixed the UFG upper and lower targets at six per cent and 5.40 per cent, respectively, for the FY 2005-06.

But the SSGC had contended that the UFG target set by Ogra were “unrealistic and not achievable due to prevailing theft culture, delay in rehabilitation of old network due to exorbitant road restoration charges and encroachments on the network.” It had maintained that due to above mentioned reasons, it could only achieve the UFG level of 7.06 per cent for the said year. But Ogra had maintained its earlier benchmark.