ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The government has decided against discontinuing gas supply to transport and industrial sectors in Punjab during December in view of mild winter, but to stop the supply of gas to all sectors, except domestic consumers in January and February.

After a meeting of a Senate committee, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told journalists on Wednesday that load management schedule of gas would be reviewed on a weekly basis in December and adjustments would be made depending on the severity of the weather. “Gas supply to the CNG and industrial sectors would not be changed for now,” he said.

But he made it clear that gas would not be available to any sector, except domestic consumers, in the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited’s network, mostly in Punjab.

In reply to a question about the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project, the minister said that the recent relaxation in sanctions against Iran would significantly benefit Pakistan because international engineering companies and banks were now expected to become part of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract and extend financing facilities for the 781-km pipeline in Pakistan.

He said Pakistan had never backed out of the bilateral pipeline project and now the situation would be more favourable and the two sides were expected to hold more talks on the project in December.

Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum, headed by Mohammad Yousuf, was earlier given a briefing on shipments of copper and gold production from Saindak Copper-Gold Project in Balochistan by a Chinese firm. The ministry of petroleum was asked to provide the value of shipments along with freight charges so that a holistic view of the Saindak Metal Company Limited (SML) could be taken.

Petroleum Secretary Abid Saeed informed the committee that the Saindak Copper Gold Project was currently owned by the federal government and the ministry had moved a summary to the prime minister to transfer its ownership to the Balochistan government.

The managing director of Saindak Metals Limited (SML) said that it would be a decision of the prime minister whether or not to write off the federal government’s investment in the Saindak project for transferring its ownership to the provincial government. He said that Chinese contractors had sold about 161,000 tons of blister copper at a cost of $1.42 billion between 2003 and 2012.

Senator Abdul Nabi Bangash from Hangu criticised the federal government’s gas allocation policy and alleged that despite producing 4720 barrels of crude oil and 208 million cubic feet of natural gas, local people in Tal were living in abject poverty and without gas.

He said that successive governments had also adopted the policy of discrimination under which the natural gas produced from Sui field was supplied throughout the country, but was not to the people of Sui, causing anger and frustration in the province.

Likewise, he said, the government was producing oil and gas worth billions of dollars from Kohat, Tal and Hangu, but has not spent a few billion rupees to provide gas to these areas. He regretted that the federal bureaucracy had created hurdles for such public welfare schemes.

Petroleum Minister Shahid Abbasi said he could not do anything about the federal bureaucracy because it was not under him. But the PML-N government, he said, had done away with the funding for gas expansion schemes because of severe gas shortage.

But Senator Bangash wondered why billions of rupees were being spent on laptop schemes, but funds were not there for gas schemes in Tal and other areas of PK from where gas was being extracted and supplied to other parts of the country.

He threatened to close down Tal Block in KP and said that the people of Tal, Hangu and Kohat would suspend production of gas and oil from these fields unless funds were approved for gas supply in those areas.