Gas supply from Kunnar-Pasakhi delayed despite petroleum minister assurances

APTMA says industries not on SNGPL’s priority list.


Shahram Haq January 11, 2012

LAHORE: Despite assurances from the petroleum minister, the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has been unable to re-start gas supply to industries, which was scheduled to resume from Wednesday, citing delay in supply from the Kunnar-Pasakhi gas field.

The SNGPL network was expected to receive 50 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas from the Kunnar-Pasakhi field on Wednesday, but it was delayed. The company has informed the industries about the delay and asked them to wait until fresh volume is added to the system.

Last week, Petroleum Minister Asim Hussain assured the protesting industrialists that they would be provided gas for two days a week.

“The 50 mmcfd of gas could not be added to the system due to some technical reasons, but it will be received soon. New gas fields often encounter such technical issues,” said SNGPL General Manager Sales Rehan Nawaz while talking to The Express Tribune.

However, he cautioned that even after the gas was received from the new field, it would be difficult to ensure supply to industries in January as demand from residential consumers had increased by 150 mmcfd in the past one week mainly due to snowfall in northern areas.

“SNGPL is currently facing a demand-supply gap of around 850 mmcfd, making it difficult for us to supply without any interruption to residential consumers, who are our priority,” Nawaz said. “The company is also continuously supplying 100 mmcfd to national defence institutions.”

He pointed out that when textile millers met with the minister last week, the situation was different, but “now snowfall has increased the load.”

The company does not have enough gas for industries and is working to make more zones in consultation with all stakeholders to manage gas load in an efficient manner. “This process will be completed soon,” he said.

Reacting to the development, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Punjab Chapter President Ahsan Bashir alleged SNGPL was not interested in providing gas for industries in January as the sector was never a priority for it, “We think this is just a lame excuse, which will continue until the weather improves,” he said.

“We also tried to contact the Punjab governor and the petroleum minister, but to no avail. They told us to run our units on alternative means despite the fact that all industrial expansion in previous years was done on the basis of gas supply as Wapda could not supply electricity to industries,” Bashir added.

He said the industries had to meet export orders and would hold a meeting shortly to chart a future course of action.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2012.

COMMENTS (4)

ahmed | 12 years ago | Reply

“SNGPL is currently facing a demand-supply gap of around 850 mmcfd, making it difficult for us to supply without any interruption to residential consumers, who are our priority,” Nawaz said. “The company is also continuously supplying 100 mmcfd to national defence institutions.”

ITS THERE ANY KIND OF INDUSTRY THERE?

Paki | 12 years ago | Reply

@Sindhi... dont say like this... we are pakistanies, plz change ur thinking and behave like a pakistani, rather then sindhi, balochi.... think if Punjab behave like u and said we are not going to give wheat to sindh.. then?

VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ