Industrial areas pay the price: SSGC curtails gas supply to KESC

Korangi and SITE areas will each bear four hours of power outages after technical faults in different fields.

KARACHI: Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has announced that it has curtailed supply of gas to the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to 50 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).

SSGC spokesperson Nasreen Hussain confirmed that the company is facing a shortfall of 80 mmcfd due to technical faults in different gas fields located in Sindh. The official explained that the supply of gas from Bhit field has been reduced by 50 mmcfd to 290 mmcfd.

The field, which is operated by ENI, developed a fault in its compressor on Monday. “ENI will take two days to repair the fault” Hussain said.

A major breakdown also occurred at Zamzama gas field, which is operated by BHP. Just after noon on Tuesday, production of gas from that site was completely shut down.

The SSGC official, however, stressed that the field started production within two hours of the incident, but raising the output to normal levels would take some time.

Zamzama field injects about 210 mmcfd into the SSGC network. “After carefully reviewing the situation, the SSGC’s gas load management committee has decided to reduce gas supply to KESC from 80 mmcfd to 50 mmcfd till the normalisation of supply from the affected gas fields,” she explained.

Meanwhile, KESC has resumed power outages in industrial areas, after SSGC trimmed gas supply to the electricity supplier. KESC spokesperson Amir Abbasi said that contrary to SSGC’s assertions, “KESC is only receiving 40 mmcfd of gas at the moment.”

He explained that industrial areas have been divided into two groups - Korangi and SITE - and each group will bear four hours of power outages until the resumption of normal gas supply.

Recalling an agreement between SSGC and KESC, Abbasi reiterated that the power supplier has never received full supply of gas as per its approved quota of 276 mmcfd. He added that the differential is made up by utilising furnace oil which is three times expensive as compared to natural gas.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2011.