Director hits back at industrialists

Argues that the company has rightly disconnected gas supply.

LAHORE: Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) Managing Director Rasheed Lone has strongly rejected industrialists’ remarks that the company is acting inappropriately with the Punjab industrial sector, by providing insufficient gas.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Lone said that due to prolonged winter, the domestic demand has yet to decrease. He said that SNGPL is receiving 56 per cent of gas from Sindh, 25 per cent from Balochistan, 12 per cent from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), while only 7 per cent of gas is produced by Punjab. SNGPL’s total production is about 3800 million cubic feet (mmcf), while the total demand touches 4700 mmcf. To bridge the gap, SNGPL has scheduled load management, particularly for industries, rather than domestic users.

SNGPL has scheduled a five-day plan for industries, as they have the alternative option to run their units through oil, as opposed to domestic consumers. Lone said that according to an agreement signed in 1983, SNGPL is bound to provide industries with gas for nine months every year.

Despite permission to cut off gas supply for 90 days, the company had only disconnected the supply for 45 days. Lone said that industrialists must cooperate with SNGPL while the country experiences a gas shortage. “Rather than cooperating, they are threatening protests against us, which is unfair,” he said, adding that SNGPL itself was purchasing and reselling gas, rather than producing it itself.

The current load management may continue till March 15, after which the situation is expected to normalise, due to rising temperatures in most parts of the country. Lone said that after March 15, industries would be provided with gas for three days; however, load management will continue till the summer.

Lone added that SNGPL was bound to provide gas to four power houses from Monday, as per an agreement; otherwise, the power houses could take legal action. SNGPL also has to resume gas supply to Engro in March, as supply had been disconnected for the last 50 days. Currently, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) is providing SNGPL with 50 mmcf of gas per day because of a recent blast in a gas pipeline. Lone added that the current reserves of gas are sufficient for the next 25 years, provided demand remains at the current level.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2011.