• Says costly LNG won’t help govt to ensure proper supply to domestic consumers
• SSGC chief hopes half of gas shortfall in Karachi to be covered if other sectors support

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar has said that domestic consumers’ gas needs in winter are met by curtailing supply to non-export general industries and captive power plants, but this year the Sindh High Court (SHC) issued a stay order on the curtailment.

Speaking at the PTV on Friday, the minister said since the next hearing regarding the stay order was scheduled for Dec 30, he had directed the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to request the court for an early hearing and plead against the stay order so that needs of the domestic consumers could be met in an efficient manner.

He said there were some complaints of low gas pressure at the tail end of the transmission network, but there were certain reasons for shortage of the commodity supply to domestic consumers in Karachi. He told the media that Sui Southern and Northern Gas companies had been making all-out efforts to ensure good management of gas supply to domestic consumers despite serious constraints such as depletion of existing natural gas reserves and high demand in the peak winter season.

He was of the opinion that gas demand of domestic consumers had increased by 3 to 5 per cent in the winter season, which was met by curtailing the supply to other sectors as per the priority list set by the cabinet due to shortage of the commodity.

About the existing natural gas reserves, the minister said they were depleting by at the rate of nine percent every year. During the past two years, the gas reserves had depleted by 18pc, he added. Besides, the demand had increased manifold, he said. In this situation, adding the imported, costly Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) did not suit the government to supply to domestic consumers.

“The government gets only Rs1 billion from domestic consumers in return if an LNG cargo of Rs8bn to Rs10bn is injected into the system to supply the commodity to domestic consumers.”

The minister said the next hearing before the SHC regarding the stay order was scheduled for December 30 and expressed the hope that the court would set aside the stay order and grant the permission to curtail the supply to the general industry and captive power plants to meet needs of the domestic consumers.

While sharing ground realities of the prevailing gas supply issue through a video message, SSGC Managing Director Imran Maniar said the domestic consumers had the highest priority for the gas supply according to official load management plan and the gas utility was making all-out efforts to mitigate their sufferings.

Referring to the press conference by the minister, Mr Maniar shed light on the reasons of gas shortage in Karachi. He explained all possible steps being taken to resolve the issues of customers in Karachi and how gas supply would be maintained / improved for the metropolis.

250MMCFD shortfall expected

Mr Maniar said domestic customers had the highest priority in government’s gas load management plan. Currently, the shortfall was 200 million cubic feet a day (MMCFD) but it was expected to rise to 250MMCFD in January 2022, he said. In this scenario, the SSGC was putting its best efforts to route the gas, which was earlier being supplied to other sectors, to its domestic customers by curtailing gas supplies to CNG sector along with the non-export industrial sector and its captive power plants.

Just two days back, a plan had been discussed with industries to limit the curtailment of gas supply to the non-export industrial sector through a mandatory shutdown of 36 hours a week in order to ensure building good pressure of gas. “We expect the industry to honour this agreement and support SSGC in these difficult times,” the MD said.

According to him, this plan will be executed from December 27 and it is expected that between 70 and 80MMCFD gas will be available this way. Through this initiative, he said, 50 per cent of the “150MMCFD gas shortfall currently being experienced by Karachi customers” could be covered.

The MD requested the industrial customers to comply with this understanding and not to take stay orders from honourable courts; rather they should sit together with the SSGC to discuss possible solutions for solving this prevailing issue.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2021