KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) announced on Tuesday that gas supply to non-export industries had been stopped, followed by 50 per cent cut in supply to captive power plants, to ensure gas availability to residential customers.

Stakeholders had already been warned about this decision, the SSGC spokesman said.

He said the company was facing a gas shortfall of 200-250mmcfd from various gas fields.

Amid looming gas crisis, the country’s overall gas production from various fields fell by 4.3 per cent to 3,377mmcfd during June 9-15 as compared to 3,530mmcfd from June 2-8.

However, there was a slight jump in gas production to 3,544mmcfd during May 25-June 1 from 3,495mmcfd during May 19-May 25.

Barring Qadirpur gas field from where gas production soared by 2.9pc to 193mmcfd from 188mmcfd, production from other fields remained low during June 9-15 as compared to June 2-8.

Amid low gas production, supply to captive power plants cut by 50pc, CNG stations closed for a week in Sindh

The head of Research at Arif Habib Limited, Tahir Abbas, said Mari gas field witnessed a decline of 6.8pc in gas production owing to shutdown of FFC-II. Gas production from Mari gas field plunged to 708mmcfd during June 9-15 from 759mmcfd in June 2-8.

Gas production from Kandhkot decreased by 29.9pc to 68mmcfd during June 9-15 from 97mmcfd during June 2-8 amid lower offtake from Guddu Thermal Power Station, he said.

A drop of 2.6pc was witnessed in Uch gas field’s production to 413mmcfd during June 9-15 from 424mmcfd, followed by four per cent fall in Sutiari Deep’s gas field to 131mmcfd from 137mmcfd while gas output from Sui fell by one per cent to 342mmcfd from 348mmcfd in the above mentioned week. Gas output from Rajani gas field fell by 2.5pc to 62mmcfd from 84mmcfd, while Bhit gas field’s output dropped by 1.5pc to 55mmcfd from 56mmcfd.

CNG stations all over Sindh have been closed from June 22 to 29 after stoppage in gas supply by the SSGC.

The SSGC said on Tuesday the current gas shortage situation in Sindh had arisen due to temporary shutdown of Kunnar-Pasakhi Deep (KPD) gas field, one of the largest suppliers of natural gas, which is undergoing annual maintenance work. Due to the closure of KPD field, SSGC is facing a shortage of 170mmcfd gas, a situation that is expected to last till the end of June when the field will resume its normal operations.

However, the data of Arif Habib Limited revealed that gas production from KPD during June 9-15 slightly dropped by 0.2pc to 141mmcfd from 142mmcfd during June 2-8.

SSGC said that currently due to closure of KPD gas field, the Company was being supplied 1,060mmcfd gas from various other fields. On the other hand, overall demand for gas is 1,250mmcfd. The Company is getting 910mmcfd indigenous gas and 150mmcfd RLNG.

SSGC said immediately after receiving intimation of the supply situation from the gas field operators, the Company started implementing the government’s gas load management plan under which domestic customers were given priority followed by commercial customers. To meet the demand of both customers, CNG stations have been closed for a week in accordance with the government’s gas load management plan. SSGC is providing K-Electric 150mmcfd gas so that the people of Karachi do not suffer from power outages.

SSGC has requested all stakeholders to cooperate with the utility during the next couple of weeks, until normal gas supply is resumed.

Meanwhile, Site Association of Industry President Abdul Hadi has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to issue directives to SSGC for restoration of gas supply to the Site industries.

He said SSGC had issued a notification of gas shutdown for two days but did not restore gas to the industries even after two days as promised. SSGC is reluctant to give any positive response to the industrialists, he added.

Mr Hadi pointed out that gas crisis had jeopardised production activities besides creating problems in completion of export orders and as a result large-scale export orders were likely to be cancelled. He feared massive cancellation of export orders owing to looming gas crisis.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2021