Gas loadshedding: Unexpected gas shutdown irks industry

PTEA lashes out at SNGPL for cutting off gas without informing stakeholder.

FAISALABAD: Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) carried out its annual scheduled gas turnaround, cutting off gas supplies to allow for maintenance work and ease pressure on gas fields, but industry representatives in Faisalabad claim that SNGPL deviated from the schedule and textile mills were faced with an unexpected cut off in gas supply.

Hit by shutdowns because of the country’s already scarce gas supplies, the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has expressed concern over the ‘sudden suspension’ of gas supply to industries, as the textile industry of Faisalabad faced an unexpected curtailment of gas just two days before gas supply was to be turned off again. The exporters’ body lashed out at SNGPL, calling the move unilateral and arrogant.

Talking to newsmen here today, Chairman and Vice Chairman PTEA Asghar Ali and Muhammad Asif said that SNGPL supplied gas to the industries of Faisalabad for just two days in the last week and issued a three day gas supply schedule on Sunday for this week. However the gas supply was suddenly suspended without taking the industrialists into confidence, disrupting the industrial process. They were furious at the action, saying that the processing sector operates round the clock as textile processing is a continuous process, and shutting down the operation causes heavy losses.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2013.

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