Costly and scarce

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Natural gas is not just getting dearer, it is in extremely short supply too. Last month, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics revealed that gas prices had increased by a staggering 850% in just four months. And just days later, Ogra approved yet another raise in the prices of the commodity – 25.78% in the case of SSGCL and 8.71 per cent in the case of SNGPL. However, even this costly natural gas is not available to consumers for more than 12 hours a day. While the situation is more or less same across the country, both in terms of cost and supply, the province of Sindh feels being wronged more than all others, given that it has a 61% share in the amount of gas generated in the country.

Raising the issue of gas loadshedding in Sindh on the floor of the provincial assembly last week, a legislator from the ruling PPP demanded the province's share of gas supply in line with its needs. The legislator, Heer Ismail Soho, insisted that the Constitution guarantees indigenous right on resources. Ms Soho also found support from legislators belonging to other parties, including JI and MQM-P, as she presented an adjournment motion, calling upon the federal government to give Sindh its due share of the natural resource. The same issue reverberated in the Senate also about a month back.

According to official statistics, Sindh receives 285mmcfd gas as against its need of 400mmcfd, meaning a shortfall of 115mmcfd or around 29%. Depletion of reserves is indeed one reason for supply shortfall, as relevant officials argue; but there are other factors also that compel loadshedding, including: poor supply infrastructure, increasing volume of UFG (unaccounted for gas) losses, undue priority to CNG stations, etc. Focusing upon the mentioned factors will at least help cut down on gas loadshedding, if not doing away with it completely.