SSGC succeeds in reducing UFG by over 2% in 2012-13

State owned company’s efforts will see profits rise by Rs3 billion.

ISLAMABAD:

The state-owned Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has performed well during the financial year 2012-13, registering a reduction of around 2% in Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) which will lead to rise in profitability by Rs3 billion.

Sources told The Express Tribune that SSGC had finalised its accounts for 2012-13 and sent them to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) as required under the rules. UFG in financial year 2011-12 was at 10.8%.

“It is encouraging to note that while over the past several years the company had been facing operational difficulties, it has now witnessed an operational turnaround and for the first time seen a considerable reduction in UFG by almost 2%,” sources said.

Officials maintained that SSGC had also made positive strides in its areas of operations, resulting in a positive impact on the company’s overall performance, leading to additional Rs3 billion profits for financial year 2012-13.



As a part of its UFG reduction initiatives and through judicious use of technology, the company has made impressive headway in terms of reducing UFG losses. Quoting some initiatives, sources said that it had installed bulk meters at non-consumer sites and had regularised its non-consumers. It also installed check meters at Points of Distribution (PoDs) for accurate reconciliation of purchases.

“To further consolidate this, it had created UFG zones for reconciliation within a region,” sources said adding that the company had rolled out and deployed a geographical mapping system and proceeded with aggressive passing unregistered gas (PUG) meter change.

Sources added that this had been further fortified through planned meter locking, disconnection and reconnection procedures.

SSGC has also carried out the deployment and rollout of GPRS enabled handheld computers, the highlight of which is the ‘Pilot Rollout of Handheld Methane Detectors’ in the customer relations department. Furthermore, ‘quality revamping’ has been undertaken at meter manufacturing plant.

The company had also defined special codes for meter reading and bill delivery contractors, based on identification of theft, overhead leakages, non-consumers, eroding pipes and damaged meters.

“The company’s recent initiatives in technology, remote monitoring, etc have led to a substantial decrease in UFG for the first time in 5 years and the company has obtained good results,” an official added.

The company had also shown a credible performance on the recovery side as well and one of its major bulk gas purchasers, namely the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), has repaid the company Rs1.2 billion from its outstanding arrears. As a result, SSGC is now supplying 220 million cubic feet per day of gas to KESC.

It can be said that, in overall terms, SSGC has shown increased profitability this year and is well on its way to improved performance in the coming years.

When contacted, the spokesman for SSGC confirmed that accounts that the company had finalised its accounts for 2012-13 and sent them to OGRA as required under the rules, but refused to comment on the reduction of UFG and sharing any details of the financial results.

SSGC’s transmission system extends from Sui in Balochistan to Karachi in Sindh, comprising over 3,220 kilometres of high pressure pipeline ranging from 12 – 24 inches in diameter. The distribution, activities covering over 1200 towns in the Sindh and Balochistan, are organised through its regional offices.

An average of about 388,828 mmcfd of gas was sold in 2009-2010 to over 2.5 million industrial, commercial and domestic consumers in these regions through a distribution network of over 37,000 Km. The company also owns and operates the only gas meter manufacturing plant in the country, having an annual production capacity of over 750,000 meters.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2013.

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