LAHORE, Dec 16: The Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), one of the two state-owned gas utilities, has cut supplies to 200 industries apart from ‘managing’ the load for CNG stations in Punjab and the NWFP as the domestic demand rose by 250mmcf with the sharp drop in temperatures over the last few days.

“The demand is expected to grow to 500 to 600mmcf a day over the next couple of weeks as the cold intensifies and the people use gas heaters to keep them warm,” a senior SNGPL official told Dawn on Tuesday.

The demand has been rising consistently from the beginning of this month.

That means the utility would have to cut gas supplies to a larger number of industrial units in addition to slashing load for CNG stations for longer intervals to protect its domestic consumers, the official said.

The gas demand has already gone up by 13.50 per cent to 2,100mmcf compared to availability of 1,850mmcf gas in the company’s system.

“The only way to reduce the gap between the demand and supply is to advise the domestic consumers to adopt energy saving methods and spare some fuel for the industry because “we don’t have any new, additional supplies coming in the system to meet the increased consumption,” the official said.

He said the only option left to the company was to divert gas from industrial consumers to domestic ones to meet their needs.

The industry, in the meanwhile, has urged the government to utilise all power generation capacities available in the country and suspend duties on furnace oil.”

Commenting on the gas shortage the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) chairman Tariq Mahmood said that the entire textile chain was in deep trouble due to six to eight hours of power blackouts. The situation had been complicated by the suspension of gas supplies to the textile industry in Punjab and the NWFP.

“The textile industry suffers production losses to the tune of billions of rupees as we are producing only two-thirds of our capacity due to energy shortages,” Mr Mahmood said.

Some exporters said they were unable to meet deadlines for export shipments due to production cuts and buyers were switching to other sources for their needs. The Aptma Punjab chairman Akber Sheikh said the textile industry had put on hold the export growth plans because of uncertain supply of power and gas. He said that an estimated 30 per cent reduction in production meant that the textile exports remained stagnant at $10 billion.

Aptma Energy Committee chairman Shafqat Elahi suggested that all Wapda thermal plants – whose efficiency is only 18 per cent – be shifted to furnace oil and the gas thus saved be diverted to the textile industry. The thermal efficiency of textile units was 38-50 per cent, he claimed.

He also called for raising the CNG rates for 45-60 days of severe winter in order to discourage consumers from its excessive use.