Gas supply to cement manufacturer cut off

Company writes letter to PM, highlighting plant shutdown

LAHORE: The ongoing drive against gas theft undertaken by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has begun damaging large industrial units, one of which has contacted the Prime Minister’s Office for immediate relief.

In a letter written by Lucky Cement, a big manufacturer and exporter of clinker and cement, to Prime Minister Imran Khan, the company management highlighted the major shutdown at its northern plant, located in Pezu, Lucky Marwat district, K-P.

“For the past almost four months, we are facing major gas shutdowns at our plant and we have been raising the issue continuously with relevant departments but the situation has gone from bad to worse,” stated the letter.



“Since the commencement of April, we have experienced almost complete gas shutdown at our plant and in the past 15 days, we have not received gas for more than two days.”

The plant was situated in a backward area of the country and the company had no other utility service except for gas to run it, the letter added.

A senior official of Lucky Cement said the gas unavailability had become a major issue, which was threatening the livelihood of thousands of company employees besides negatively impacting the cement manufacturing process.

“The company has no fault and believes that immediate restoration of gas supply is the only solution to the ongoing crisis. The management has highlighted the suspension of gas supply with the quarters concerned, but no tangible progress has been made yet,” he added.

The letter said the management approached both the relevant ministry and SNGPL and it was told that gas closure was due to the disconnection of illegal connections in the main gas pipeline, leading to the company’s plant.

“However, we have been given no timeline for how long this curtailment will continue,” the letter said. It added that a prolonged reduction in gas supply was playing havoc with plant operations.

Owing to that, the company had to shut down production, which caused huge losses in addition to job cuts for daily-wage workers and other employees, inability to meet local and export commitments and loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer in the form of taxes and foreign exchange, the letter added.

The drive against gas theft, which was initially planned to end within a short span of time, “has now been going on for over a month”, it said. “Cement manufacturing is an energy-intensive process and cannot continue amid prolonged forced shutdown of natural gas.”

According to the official, the company is facing a monthly production loss of around 350,000 tons.



An SNGPL spokesman said gas supply in the area had been affected due to ongoing operation against widespread unaccounted-for-gas (UFG) losses.  “Operation in the area against gas theft was indispensable as the company was facing a loss of two billion cubic feet annually due to UFG in these districts, which translated into Rs4 billion,” he said.

The spokesman said gas supply was partially restored in the area from 6pm to 6am daily. He, however, did not give any timeframe for the conclusion of ongoing operation against UFG and subsequent restoration of gas supply to the cement plant.

“We have contacted the company and assured them of providing full gas supply from the upcoming Monday for 18 days, whereas for the remaining 12 days of this month, we will provide them partial gas supply,” the spokesman said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2019.

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