Theft, leakage: SSGC cuts loss for first time in 5 years

KARACHI:

Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) on Tuesday announced that it had succeeded in reducing Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) loss to 6.88% in 2012-13 from 8.68% a year ago.

UFG loss pertains to gas theft and leakages from the system. In recent years, the loss emerged as a major headache for the company as it faced penalties and pressure from the regulator to address the problem.

SSGC said this was for the first time in five years that the UFG level had been brought down. A number of factors contributed to UFG that included population shift to urban centres leading to growth in non-customers, underground and overhead gas leakages, shift of sale from bulk to retail customers and theft, it said.

During its campaign to bring down the loss, SSGC identified 632 theft cases and disconnected their supply in 2012-13, resulting in recovery of 108 million cubic feet (mmcf). For reducing UFG, the company also changed defective meters.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2014.

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