LAHORE, Dec 22: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Thursday stopped supply of gas to 111 captive power plants in the Lahore region (Sheikhupura and Bhai Phero) and seven in the Gujranwala region for an indefinite period, forcing closure of export-oriented industrial units, especially textile mills.
A press announcement issued by the company said it had been constrained to “resort to load curtailment of captive power units due to imbalance between supply and demand of gas caused by severe cold and foggy weather.” It said the gas supply to the captive power units had been curtailed in accordance with the agreement signed by each unit.
The announcement said the company officials had briefed the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) office-bearers about the gas demand and supply position and requested them to advise their member units to extend full cooperation so that the SNGPL gas system could be saved from depletion. “They (Aptma office-bearers) have been assured that gas supply to these units will be restored as soon as demand and supply position improves.”
It may be recalled that the SNGPL had stopped supply of gas to some 41 captive power plants in Sheikhupura and Gujranwala region on December 15. It was restored on December 20, with instructions to the industry to use only half of their sanctioned load. However, the company has once again stopped gas supply to the captive power units, extending it to 118 units this time.
At that time of curtailing gas supply last week, the SNGPL officials had told Dawn that the company was constrained to stop gas supply to the industry because of increased domestic demand due to cold weather, which had created an imbalance between supply and demand. They had stated that the supply to the industrial consumers was stopped to facilitate general public under the government policy despite the fact that this resulted in substantial revenue losses to the company.
The textile manufacturers and exporters said that the SNGPL action to stop supply of gas to their units would severely hit the industry and exports. “We will incur huge losses because of the SNGPL action, and won’t be able to execute export orders on time,” former Aptma-Punjab senior vice chairman Adil Mehmood told Dawn.
He said instead of shutting supply to 118 units completely, the gas supplier should have distributed gas load-shedding to all units using this facility. “This will allow each unit to operate at least one shift instead of shutting down production completely,” he said.
He was of the view that the gas supplier should have stopped supply to fertilizer manufacturers, who were getting it at highly subsidized rates. “It could save enough gas to allow the rest of the industry, whose supplies have been stopped, to continue production for exports. Fertilizer is something we can easily import from abroad,” he added.
