Winter gas shortfall to reach 500mmcfd in Punjab, K-P

Official says gap between demand and supply of gas is likely to reach 500mmcfd

ISLAMABAD:

Consumers are likely to face an acute shortage of gas during the winter, an official of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) – the company that distributes gas in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) provinces – told The Express Tribune on Monday.

“Consumers are going to witness an energy crisis in cold weather due to depleting production of natural gas and domestic consumers [of the SNGPL] will only be provided gas for cooking purposes,” said the official while requesting anonymity.

“The gap between demand and supply of gas is likely to reach 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).”

He said the company is going to do load management for the industrial consumers in the coming months. “In view of growing gas demand, the authorities are going to ensure import of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG),” he added.

Moreover, the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) -- the company is engaged in the business of transmission and distribution of natural gas in southern part of the country mainly in Sindh and Baluchistan -- in a statement had warned that the upcoming winter will see a shortfall of 150 to 300 mmcfd gas.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on September 9 urged the relevant stakeholders to build a national consensus to steer Pakistan out of a gas crisis, which, according to him, has emerged due to depleting indigenous gas reserves.

Addressing a seminar, the premier had warned that people would have to bear the burden of the import costs of gas and that this import would also result in an increase of circular debt in the energy sector.

“Only 27pc of households have access to piped gas whilst the remaining rely on the LPG [Liquefied Petroleum Gas] cylinders, which are four times more expensive than piped gas,” he had said.

The prime minister had hoped that after a debate among all the stakeholders, there would be a national consensus on how to take the country out of the gas crisis.

“Punjab feels like it doesn't have enough gas, whereas the K-P also feels like it is not producing enough. We are wasting the country’s potential in the gas sector as well as the hydel power sector.”

PM Imran said the country should not have come to this stage, if the previous leadership had debated on national issues. “There would have been a sense of direction for the country,” he said.