ISLAMABAD: With serious energy crises looming over the country, the CNG industry has slammed the bureaucracy from restricting them from importing cheap gas to be sold at CNG stations at almost half the price of petrol.

“Only if we are allowed to import LNG … the consumers will benefit from cheap fuel, government will save some money as less petrol will have to be imported, the terminals will get charges by offloading our LNG cargo, the SNGPL and the SSGC will get rent for transporting,” Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, group leader All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) said here on Tuesday at a media briefing.

“All the required regulations have been framed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority around five years back, but [a] few government departments and [a] few bureaucrats were not giving us the permission to import LNG,” he added.

Asks government to allow private sector to import LNG

He added that one of the LNG terminals of the country was operating at 78 per cent of its capacity, but the government companies who have monopoly over LNG import and distribution do not want to give space to the private sector.

He said if the government withdraws all subsidies on petrol, it will cost around Rs291 per litre.

“We can provide 53pc cheaper fuel at CNG stations for the public transport too against petrol price that will save around $2.1 billion import bill annually,” Mr Paracha said. “It will help reduce the circular debt that has crossed Rs2,000bn in energy sector, and also benefit the environment.”

According to a presentation prepared by the association for the government, reviving the CNG sector can help put the country’s economy back on track and ease the current energy and fuel crises.

He said the CNG sector is expec­ted to consume up to 300 mmcfd gas which, according to him, is equivalent to around 3.68 billion litres of petrol, while this is also equivalent to having an environmental benefit of 152.63 million trees per annum.

“But there is one serious hurdle in allowing the CNG sector to import LNG — we will import the fuel at around $10-14 mmcfd whereas the government functionaries import it at very high rates even up to $25 per mmcfd,” Mr Paracha said, adding, “This will expose the inefficiency of the public sector, so bureaucracy does not want to see any competition in the LNG import.”

Responding to a query, he said that power struggle between two members of the former federal cabinet — Ali Zaidi and Hammad Azhar — restricted the development of new LNG terminal in the country.

He also said that former commerce minister Razzak Dawood allowed gas tariff of around $6.5 per mmcfd to the textile sector, which was purchased at $25 per mmcfd.

Samir Gulzar, central chairman of APCNGA, said there were 2,300 CNG stations in the country, including 1,100 in Punjab, 600 in Sindh, 575 in KP and 25 in Balochistan.

He said around 50pc of Punjab’s CNG stations were out of operation due to non-availability of gas, but the situation has also severely damaged the trust of local and international investors in the country.

He said that up to Rs150bn has been invested in the CNG sector ranging from kits to establishment of gas stations.

He lamented that the state at one time invited local and foreign investors to invest in the CNG sector, but subsequent governments abandoned that policy, even though CNG was beneficial for the financial health of the country as well as the general public.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2022