Gas loadshedding woes

Government provided years of subsidies without developing alternative energy sources, and now abruptly cuts supply.

At a time when we are already suffering from over 10 hours of loadshedding a day, the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet has now decided to approve a massive increase in the price of gas. For domestic and commercial consumers, this will mean a 15 per cent price hike while industries face an increase of 18 per cent. In addition, CNG stations in Sindh will not be supplied gas for two days per week while stations in Punjab will have three days of loadshedding. There are two reasons why this move is unwise. First, it likely contravenes a Sindh High Court stay order that forbade the government from shutting off the gas supply to CNG stations. Then, there is the fact that for years the government encouraged consumers, through generous subsidies, to switch their cars from petrol and diesel to CNG. In fact, Pakistan now has more CNG-equipped cars than any other country in the world. To ease the pain, the government needed to gradually wean consumers off gas, not have an abrupt turnaround.

The bitter truth, however, is that we are running out of gas. This is directly attributable to years of government policy where gas was subsidised but new sources of supply were not tapped. In the last decade, there has been an average annual increase of 10 per cent in the demand for gas, to the point where 50 per cent of our energy needs are met by gas. While loadshedding is inevitable in the short-term, we now have to look for long-term solutions. Tapping energy reserves in Balochistan has become impossible due to the political situation in the province so we will be forced to look abroad. By far the best way would be to finally approve and build a pipeline that would allow us to import over a billion cubic feet of gas per day from Iran. The pipeline is opposed by the US because of its poor relations with Iran but our energy needs must take precedence even to the objections of our paymasters. We are in this situation because of government short-sightedness; to overcome it, more long-term planning is needed urgently.

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