Gas woes continue

SSGC requests all industrial zones of Karachi to reduce consumption by 20% between October 27 and November 4.

KARACHI: Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has requested all industrial zones of Karachi to reduce their consumption of gas by 20 per cent between October 27 and November 4.

An announcement made by the SSGC said that the Zamzama gas field will undergo scheduled maintenance during these days.

“In view of the annual turnaround (ATA) of the Zamzama gas field, requisite natural gas quantities of 204 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) will not be available to SSGC,” it said.

It also conceded that “this ATA of the Zamzama field will severely hamper the company’s capacity to serve industries located in Karachi at Site, Korangi, Landhi, Federal B Area, North Karachi, Bin Qasim and in Hyderabad.”

Resultantly, the company has requested the concerned associations of trade and industry to curtail their usage of natural gas by 20 per cent during the period.

“The supply of gas to Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) will also be affected due to this closure,” an SSGC official told The Express Tribune. He asserted that “the KESC management has already been taken on board that they will be provided 80 mmcfd of gas during the week that Zamzama is under ATA” and that “all possible efforts will be made to increase this supply to 100 mmcfd”.

The SSGC also said that “the company assures its domestic and commercial customers that it will continue to provide them with uninterrupted, regular supply.”

However, KESC spokesperson Amir Abbasi contested the claim saying, “We have been simply informed by SSGC although the KESC maintains that any reduction in gas supply will directly impact the public at large.” He also pointed out that the supply of gas to the power provider “is already far below 276 mmcfd which was agreed by the federal cabinet.”

Differing responses

Industrialists from the six industrial zones of Karachi have expressed varied responses on the announcement by SSGC which requests them to curtail use of gas for a week. “The time period for the closure is too long,” complained Federal B Area Association of Trade and Industry Chairman Irfan Aslipari, adding that “the outages should be carried out in phases with one or two zones having to reduce their usage for a couple of days each”. He said that it will be difficult to implement the requested curtailment because most industries have many different machines that work in sequence and it is not possible to shut down some of them without stopping the entire process. Aslipari was also critical of the announcement as he contended that “this was simply an announcement on their part to deal with a problem and that there was no consultation with stakeholders regarding possible alternatives aside from vague request to curtail usage”. Urging SSGC to come up with a different solution, he said, “There is still time for them to sit together and come up with a better fix for this period.”

However Korangi Association of Trade and Industry Chairman Razzaq Paracha differed in his opinion, claiming that “while this is an obvious inconvenience to industry, it is also unavoidable”. He pointed out that “in December, the demand for gas in the northern areas will skyrocket and gas will be diverted to Sui Northern Gas Company (SNGPL)” and “if this maintenance is not carried out now, we may have to face a far bigger crisis then”. He recalled that a similar situation had arisen five months ago and at that time “some bulk users were requested to curtail their usage”. “With their cooperation we were able to meet SSGC’s request,” he added.

Although the temporary curtailment of gas is an inconvenience to industries, industrialists seem pressed to swallow the bitter pill for now in the hopes that they will not face prolonged gas outages in coming months.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2010.