PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday declared illegal the refusal of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited to increase gas supply a leading textile mill of the Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate, Swabi.
Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Mussarat Hilali pronounced it through a short order after the completion of arguments by the counsel for different parties in the petition of the Saif Textile Mills seeking the court’s orders for the SNGPL to accept its application for increase in gas connection’s capacity by one million cubic feet per day (MMCFD).
Details of the verdict will be announced afterward.
Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ms Mussarat Hilali pronounced its order after completion of arguments by counsels appearing for different parties in the petition filed by Saif Textile Mills, situated at Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate, seeking directives of the court for the SNGPL to allow its application for the enhancement in its gas connection capacity.
Swabi factory had challenged SNGPL’s refusal to increase capacity of its gas connection
The petitioner had requested the court to declare illegal the refusal of the SNGPL to enhance the natural gas connection capacity of the petitioner to help it compete in the international market well by better production capacity.
Advocate Qazi Ghulam Dastagir appeared for the petitioner and contended that the petitioner had Pakistan’s largest installation of relevant machines for manufacturing compact yarn and was a pioneer in the manufacturing of premium yarns for the Italian luxury shirting sector.
The counsel said the operation of the petitioner’s textile unit required uninterrupted supply of electricity.
He said to mitigate the risk of loss on account of unannounced load shedding by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), the petitioner had installed a 5.25 MW gas-fired Captive Power Plant to ensure a reliable and uninterrupted supply of electricity for the petitioner’s operations.
Ghulam Dastagir said the petitioner had obtained a gas connection from the SNGPL for regular supply of two MMCFD to meet the requirement of the said captive power plant.
He said with a view to remain competitive in the international market, the petitioner planned to establish different new units in addition to existing production with an approximate investment of $45 million.
The counsel said to meet the electric power requirement s of the expansion program, the petitioner decided to install two gas generator sets of rated capacity of 2437kv and 1950kv.
He said the petitioner had sent a letter on Jun 20, 2007, to the SNGPL’s general manager for enhancement of existing load for supply of additional one MMCFD to meet the needs of the said two generators.
He said the petitioner on Nov 29, 2007, applied for gas connection over which the SNGPL prepared a feasibility report on Jan 16, 2008, and forwarded the matter to its head office at Lahore on Mar 13, 2008.
The counsel said after repeated letters sent by the petitioner, the SNGPL informed the petitioner through a letter on Jan 6, 2014, that its request could not be accepted as the federal government had placed a moratorium on new gas connections since Oct 4, 2011.
He said according to the Pakistan Energy Year Book 2013 published by the Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan, the total natural gas production of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 126,234 million cubic feet whereas its total consumption was 65,179 million cubic feet, which meant that the production of natural gas in the province was surplus by 61,055 million cubic feet.
The counsel said the refusal by SNGPL was in violation to Article 158 of the Constitution which provided that a province where well-head of natural gas was situated should have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from the well-head.
The SNGPL lawyer said in view of the growing demand of the natural gas and lesser supply, the request of the petitioner could not be accepted.
Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018
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