K-P demands more gas for its industries

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has demanded that the Centre should provide 100 million cubic feet of gas to the industries of the province on a daily basis.

The provincial government has written a letter to the Centre for the provision of additional gas for its industries.

In the letter, penned by K-P Finance Adviser Himayatullah Khan to Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik, the federal government has been pushed for transferring the supply of 100 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMCFD) provided to the power sector for the production of thermal electricity in the province to its industrial zones.

In 2014, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet approved the provision of 100 million cubic feet of gas per day for thermal power projects to increase the production of electricity.

In this context, an agreement was signed between K-P and the federal government in 2016.

However, the document maintained that now that the country including K-P were producing more electricity than they consumed, industrialists were looking to set up large factories in the province.

It added that economic prosperity and countless employment opportunities would be available in K-P if this happened, but the industrialists had concerns over the lack of gas supply to the factories of the province by the federation.

The letter noted that presently, 40 million cubic feet of gas per day was being supplied to the industries of K-P.

It added that another 18 million cubic feet of gas per day was required by the province’s under-construction industrial zones.

The federal government was informed that Rashakai and Hattar industrial zones would require 54 million cubic feet of gas per day in the next three years.

The letter continued that requirement of the total gas for these two industrial zones would be 126 million cubic feet per day.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2023.