Centre assures Sindh of resolving gas crisis

Federal ministers for petroleum and power meet CM Murad Ali Shah


Hafeez Tunio December 14, 2018
Commuters struggle to find space on a public bus in Karachi as transport remained minimal in the city due to the closure of CNG stations across the province. PHOTO: ONLINE

KARACHI: The federal government has assured Sindh it will resolve the ongoing energy crisis in the province due to continuous suspension of gas supply particularly to the industrial users and the CNG stations since last week.

This assurance came on Friday during a meeting of a delegation led by Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan with Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah at the CM House.

During the meeting, the CM said the natural gas closure in Sindh is a violation of the Article 158 of the Constitution and it has rendered thousands of industrial workers and transporters jobless, while also causing serious problems for the domestic consumers.

He urged the petroleum minister to order opening of natural gas in the province.

The federal minister assured the CM that he would be holding a meeting in the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) office to take the final decision with regard to revival of the gas supply.  He also assured Shah that Sindh would be given due presentation in the federal oil and gas companies.

The two sides agreed that a meeting of provinces with the petroleum minister would be held prior to the next meeting of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) so that a consensus could be developed to resolve all the issues unanimously.

Sindh threatens to stop gas supply to other provinces

Tariq Shah of the Sindh Energy Department gave a presentation to the participants of the meeting.

Earlier, the CM referred to Article 158 which says "the province in which a well-head of natural gas is situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from that well-head, subject to commitments and obligations as the commencing day."

He said Sindh produces 26,00 to 2,700 mmcfd gas daily but it is being given a quota of 1,000 to 1,100 mmcfd. He said the gas of industrial captive power plants has been closed.

"In the city, there are 400 industrial units with a workforce of 100,000 employees. The entire industry in the city is facing gas closure for the last four days," he said, adding that the CNG sector is also facing three-day closure in a week. "This situation is alarming and causing heavy unemployment," he said.

Taking up the issue of village gasification, the CM said 985 schemes are pending with the SSGC from 2008-9 to 2017-18. There is a backlog of 8,522 applications with SSGC for clearance. Out of 7,718 applications, 50 are related to commercial, 288 to industrial, 390 to captive power and 76 to CNG users.

PM Imran suspends SNGPL, SSGCL board of directors

The CM said Sindh has no presentation in the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and proposed that there should be four Ogra members apart from the chairman and each province should be represented by one member.

He also proposed an amendment in the Petroleum Concession Agreement (PCA) and the Supplemental Agreement. Under existing arrangement the federal secretary petroleum awards the PCA to energy and power companies.

The chief minister proposed that the federal secretary petroleum and provincial secretary energy should jointly award the PCA. He also proposed that the provincial chief inspector of mines should be given a role to inspect oil and gas fields for labour and mine safety issues.

He also took up the issue of representation of provinces in the board of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL), the SSGC and the Pakistan State Oil (PSO).

Shah said the excise duty on crude oil is imposed under Article 161(1)(b) which says "the net proceeds of the federal duty of excise on oil levied at well-head and collected by the federal government, shall not form part of the Federal Consolidated Fund and shall be paid to the provinces in which the well-head of oil is situated."  He said the excise duty on crude oil has not been imposed for last eight years; therefore the provincial government is facing revenue loss.

Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar said he has brought his delegation to meet the chief minister. He said the purpose of his meeting was to know the point of view of the provincial government. He said he would also meet with chief ministers of other provinces.

Meanwhile, leaders and workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party, which rules Sindh, protested against gas suspension in district headquarters of Sindh.  They demanded to restore gas without further delay.

OGRA allows private-sector firms use of gas pipelines

400 MW green energy projects pending since 2015

Sindh CM also had a meeting with Federal Minister for Power Umer Ayub, who was told that the Sindh government had initiated 4,000MW Green Energy projects in 2015 but still their approvals are pending with relevant entities of power division.

“How we will be able to meet energy requirements of the country in such circumstances,” Shah asked.

The CM said renewable energy is the cheapest source of energy not only in Pakistan but worldwide. “The province of Sindh is the energy hub of Pakistan. Sindh has the only successful and economically viable wind corridor, highest solar radiation, biogas, geothermal and waste to energy project,” he said.

Shah said presently six projects, including three of wind and three of solar were pending for Letter of Support from the federal government though these projects haves been given tariff from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) which was around US 5/cents.

He said 21 projects are waiting for power acquisition request (PAR) from the Central Power Purchase Agency – Guaranteed (CPPA-G) though 12 projects have obtained tariff from Nepra. “Twenty two projects are waiting for data sharing by NTDC to conduct feasibility studies,” he said.

Umer Ayub said that he is making the system in his ministry more effective and efficient so that these projects and similar other business could be expedited. The CM said Renewable Energy (RE) policy-2006 has expired on March 5, 2018.

“No any action has so far been taken. “The new power installations in the world are based on renewable energy technology and our focus is on the capacity-based projects,” he said and proposed that old energy policy may extended as stop gap arrangement till the new policy was announced.

The federal minister said the new policy would be announced shortly in which national requirement, new technologies and such other aspects would be covered. The chief minister urged Ayub to visit Thar Power and Coal Mining project and witness the progress and performance of the provincial government.

COMMENTS (1)

syed & syed | 5 years ago | Reply There is a fuel/gas shortage in Pakistan. Why Iran Pakistan agreement on gas is not started. Is Saudi Arabia or America are stumbling blocks. If Pakistan will keep this behavior then the gas shortage will persist. Mr Imran Khan to take action
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ