LAHORE, Jan 27: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, which has been facing a daily deficit of over 700 million cubic feet (Mmcf) for quite some time, on Sunday decided to suspend supplies to selected CNG (compressed natural gas) stations falling in those residential areas where the pressure problem persists.

According to the company officials, there are 1,400 CNG stations on the company’s system and around 100 could get affected by the decision. The SNGPL’s regional managers have been empowered to take such decisions at the local level.

In Lahore, some 25 CNG stations, out of the 400, could be affected, they said, explaining: “So far the company has managed supplies to these stations in spite of mounting domestic demand. But, with the meteorological office forecasting another five-day cold spell, the company is constrained to contain supplies to these stations.

“According to the current decision, only those stations that cause reduction in supply load will go offline during peak hours.” The general closure of CNG stations could follow if mercury dropped further and triggered further pressure on demand, they said.

For the last three days, they said, the company had been facing 700Mmcf deficit, with demand burgeoning to 2,550Mmcf against the supply of 1,860Mmcf. The company officials maintained that during the first four days of the current cold wave, the company faced a daily increase of 25Mmcf in demand against a constant supply. But the demand had stabilised in the last three days with mercury sustaining a certain level.

The company had suspended supplies to all the industrial units on its system in Punjab and the NWFP. Even 20 per cent supplies to the textile units, which the industry was using for the processing purpose, had been stopped. But, if there was any further dip in mercury, the company would progressively suspend supplies to the CNG stations because they were the only ones consuming gas other than domestic consumers.

“Since domestic consumers are a priority, the company will switch the companies off to ensure supplies for domestic use,” the officials said.

The company had also decided to decentralise load management of gas and powers had gone to regional officers managing local supplies, they said. “The headquarters now only apportions deficit to different areas and the local managers decide how to spread the loadshedding according to (local) priorities. So, the decision to deal with CNG stations or shutting them will be taken locally, and not at the central level,” added the officials.