KARACHI, Oct 27: The shareholders of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited on Wednesday approved the payment of Rs1.50 per share of Rs10 each for the year ending June 30, 2004. The gas volume sold in 2003-04 went up by 25 per cent from 254,349 mmcf per day to 318,068 mmcf.
In terms of value, gas sales increased by 31 per cent to Rs47.4bn. The share of power sector in gas consumption increased to 53pc in terms of volume. The share of general industries has increased by 14pc.
This was revealed by SSGC Chairman Aitzaz Shahbaz while presiding over the 50th golden jubilee annual general meeting of shareholders of the company to approve the annual audited accounts for the year ended June 30, 2004 and payment of 15 per cent cash dividend to the shareholders, said a press release.
The chairman stated that during the period under review, SSGC provided a record number of 255 new connections to industrial customers, whereas overall customer's base increased from 1.669 million to 1.734 million. SSGC had laid down 721 km of distribution mains and 203 km of new service mains.
Mr Shahbaz said that beyond the year 2010, SSGC will have to devise a comprehensive energy plan/strategy for meeting the increasing gas demand from other sources. SSGC is keen to meet the energy requirements of its customers through a reliable, environment-friendly and sustainable supply of gas. For this purpose, the company has recently completed its "Gas Rehabilitation and Expansion Project" (GIREP) at a cost of Rs3.6 billion. This project was wholly financed in the local currency and comprised revamping of Pirkoh compressors units and its relocation at Hyderabad, laying of new transmission/distribution pipelines and integration of new gas fields with SSGC's transmission system.
The SSGC chief announced that after completing all the development phases, the company had achieved its target to increase its transmission capacity to 1,200m cubic feet per day (mmcfd) during the year under review.
Mr Shahbaz said SSGC was now working on GIREP-II on a fast track basis, which involved the construction of 760 km transmission pipelines. He announced that after the completion of the second phase of GIREP, SSGC would be able to enhance its transmission capacity to 1,800 mmcfd by years 2008-09. He informed the meeting that SSGC would spend about Rs17 billion on this phase from its own internal resources.
SSGC Managing Director Munawar B. Ahmad informed the shareholders that the gas supply projects for Sohbatpur and Ziarat were completed at a total cost of Rs679 million.
He said the gas supply project for Kalat (Balochistan), which was under construction and would be completed by the end of the current year, will benefit 70,000 people.
SSGC shareholders elected Aitzaz Shabaz, Munawar B. Ahmad, M. Naeem Malik, M. Iqbal Awan, Abdul Rasheed Lone, Tariq Iqbal Khan, Khursheed K. Marker, M. Javed Khan, Asif Saeed, Qasim Rabbani, Sajid Zahid, Samiullah Baloch, Saquib H. Shirazi and Zahid Majid as directors on the SSGC board.
