Talking to reporters after attending a capacity-building workshop, Hamid said: “The boilers at the processing plants are being repaired by the Pakistan Petroleum Limited. Engineers of the SNGPL are assisting them.
Out of the nine boilers, two have started functioning so far,” Hamid said.
“The SNGPL is a distributing company. It is not in its mandate to enhance supply or to explore new gas reserves. The fog and harsh weather have intensified the problems caused by the fire at the processing plants at Sui,” he said.
“The SNGPL will restore supply to domestic consumers in 24 hours as all the plants will have started working by then. For the time being, we will continue to supply gas according to the load management schedule,” Hamid said.
He said that the fire at the Sui plant was caused by a technical fault and was not the result of some terrorist activity.
“The company is facing shortage of manpower,” Hamid said. He said that SNGPL wanted to establish 12 more regional offices to facilitate the consumers. The plan would be discussed at the next board of directors meeting.
“The proposal will then be forwarded to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for a final decision,” Hamid said.
He said that the SNGPL had installed 300,000 new gas connections in 2014.
To a question about importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Hamid said that SNGPL had the capacity to carry 200 mmcfd using its existing network. The capacity would be enhanced as the supply increased, he said.
The company is owed between Rs32 billion and Rs42 billion. “Its final revenue requirement has not been determined for two years,” Hamid said. Hamid said line losses were calculated at 10 per cent of the total gas supply.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2014.
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