Gas crisis echoes in Senate

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar informed the Senate on Friday that domestic gas reserves were depleting fast and the gas prices had not been increased since 2019.

The Senate met under the chairmanship of Sadiq Sanjrani.

Responding to a calling attention notice raised by senators Sherry Rehman and Saleem Mandviwalla about the ongoing crisis in the gas supply to consumers, both domestic and commercial, especially for the upcoming winter, he said smooth gas supply would be ensured during breakfast, lunch and dinner timings in the winter season.

He said around 70 per cent gas demand was being met through domestic reserves while the remaining 30 per cent through import, adding that the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was very expansive as compared to local gas.

The minister clarified that gas share of Sindh in total country production was only 38 per cent, while Balochistan’s share stood at 40 per cent, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s 12 per cent and Punjab eight to nine per cent.

He said the incumbent government signed an LNG import contract at the lowest rate (10.2 per cent) as compared to the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government’s rate (13.4 per cent).

He categorically refuted the news item that gas would be available for only three days a week.

Read More: Gas crisis to persist for 1-2 years

Regarding Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project, he informed that the project was delayed due to international sanctions on Iran. Negotiation was being under way with Russia on the North-South pipeline project, he added.

He said two LNG terminals were set up on take or pay basis during the PML-N government and Rs40 million each daily rent was being paid to them by the government.

The minister said two more LNG terminals were being set up but they were purely based on business to business model and the government would not pay its rent.

One terminal of Japanese company Mitsubishi was being set up and the other was a local consortium with the assistance of Qatar, he said.

Azhar said 80 per cent LNG cargoes were being procured through long-term contracts while 20 per cent LNG cargoes were arranged through opening competitive bidding.

Earlier, speaking in the House, Sherry said Sindh was producing 70 per cent gas but the facility was not provided to the people of the province.

Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said energy crisis could not be addressed till early completion of Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project.

In the House, the government presented four more ordinances: Public Property (Removal of Encroachments) Ordinance, 2012; Power Generation, Transmission of Distribution (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012; Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012; and Pakistan Council for Water Resources (Amendment). (With input from APP)