ISLAMABAD: A total of 7,231 cases involving theft of gas worth Rs6,357 million by commercial and industrial consumers were detected by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) in the first nine months of 2013.

According to sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, 11,010mmcf of gas was stolen in the jurisdiction of the two companies over the nine-month period. The companies recovered about Rs1,030m from those involved in the wrongdoing.

The SSGCL detected 792 cases amounting to Rs210m both in the commercial and industrial sectors during the period.

The SNGPL detected theft of 10,731mmcf of gas, worth Rs 6,147m, and could recover only Rs974m.

A total of 2,370mmcf of gas, worth Rs1,582m, was stolen by 6,180 commercial consumers while 8,361mmcf of gas (Rs4,565m) was stolen by 259 industrial consumers.

Of the 6,180 theft cases involving commercial consumers, 2,776 were detected in Lahore, 1,028 in Gujranwala, 592 in Sheikhupura, 528 in Faisalabad, 398 in Multan, 251 in Gujrat, 216 in Peshawar, 141 in Sahiwal, 87 in Sargodha, 57 in Islamabad, 53 in Rawalpindi, 46 in Bahawalpur and seven in Abbottabad.

Industrial consumers were involved in 259 cases of gas theft and of these 63 were found in Peshawar, 51 in Lahore, 35 in Gujranwala, 30 in Sheikhupura, 19 in Multan, 14 in Rawalpindi, 12 in Gujrat, 11 in Islamabad, 10 in Faisalabad, six in Sargodha, three each in Sahiwal and Bahawalpur and two in Abbottabad.

Of the 769 commercial gas theft cases detected by the SSGCL in the nine months of last year, 582 were detected in Karachi, 49 in Hyderabad, 47 in Quetta, 37 in Sukkur, 28 in Larkana, 18 in Nawabshah and eight in Jacobabad.

Of the 23 industrial gas theft cases, 15 were found in Karachi, seven in Hyderabad and one in Sukkur.