January 03, 2008	Thursday	Zilhaj 23, 1428

LAHORE, Jan 2: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Wednesday stopped supplies to over 900 industrial units in Punjab and NWFP, as part of its plan to shut off supplies to over 3,000 units if cold wave continues in the country.

According to officials, the company is constrained to cut off supplies to all those units with which it had nine-month gas supply agreement. The cold-wave in the country has added 200 million cubic feet demand in the last two days alone.

The current deficit is around 600 million cubic feet - a supply of 1,850mmcf against demand of 2,450mmcf. In these circumstances, the company has no option but to stop supplies to all those industries that have agreement with the company for nine-month supplies.

In normal circumstances, the company does not stop supplies to these units. But, with the current cold-wave hitting an unprecedented level, the company has to stop supplies. There are over 3,000 such units. It has progressively started shutting them off. On Wednesday, the company stopped supplies to 900 units. The process will continue in the next two days to stop supplies to all 3,000 industrial units if the cold-wave continues.

They said weather has caused a deficit of 530mmcf in the last few days. The company problems have been accentuated by reduction in gas supply from Zam Zama field in Sindh. Condensate oil also comes out with gas from the field. In normal circumstances, the oil is taken to refineries for refinement. But, taking oil to refinery has become a problem because of transportation troubles in Sindh. Thus, the field is contributing only 130mmcf instead of 200mmcf, they said. Thus, the total deficit has gone up 600mmcf, which is around 25 per cent of total demand. The company has already switched off supplies to major industrial sectors, like fertiliser, power and cement.

The company has an agreement with these industries for nine months, says Mujahid Anwer of the SNGPL. The company could switch off supplies to industrial units from Dec 1 to Feb 28.

He confirmed that company would be compelled to stop supplies to all these units, if the current cold-wave persists.

The meteorological office has forecast that the cold-wave would persist for few more days, thus the company has option but to continue shedding load, and stop supplies correspondingly to the industry, as domestic consumers cannot be put under pressure, he said and added: “If weather improves in the meanwhile, the company would start restoring supplies to these industrial units.

He also appealed to the consumers to stop using gas heaters in order to keep supplies smooth. Greasers should also used with care to provide relief to the company.