RAWALPINDI: The long wait is over. After a six-month break, the CNG filling stations will resume sale next week.

However, it is still not clear for how many days a week or hours a day the filling stations will operate.

The government took the decision to reopen the stations after drastic reduction in the use of natural gas in the summer and the arrival of the LNG shipment from Qatar.

After suspending gas supply to the CNG stations in November last year to meet the demand of the domestic consumers, the government had promised to reopen the outlets in March. However, it didn’t keep the promise for one reason or the other. Later, it announced that the gas supply to the filling stations would resume after Qatar supplied LNG to the country.

Though the first Qatari LNG shipment arrived in the country in March, the CNG stations didn’t get gas, prompting the owners to protest.

Dealers, however, say the govt is yet to issue notification about the timings

Last week, representatives of the CNG dealers met Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and persuaded him to announce a share for their outlets in the next Qatari LNG shipment.

Now when another LNG shipment is arriving, the CNG owners said the cheap fuel would be available to the motorists from next week. “The prices of LNG will be 30 per cent less than petrol and the government will issue a new price list for the LNG-based gas stations,” CNG owners association president Pervaiz Khan Khattak told Dawn.

He said the LNG shipment would arrive at the Karachi Port within 24 hours after which the supply would be restored to the filling stations. The LNG-based CNG filling stations are likely to open five days a week and the natural gas-based CNG stations two days a week. However, the government has not yet issued any notification in this regard, he added.

On the other hand, CNG association leader Gayyas Abdullah Paracha said in the twin cities about 50 per cent CNG stations would be open as their owners have already made payments for LNG. He said the remaining 50 per cent owners were observing the new development.

“To import LNG, the CNG filling station owners established the Universal Gas Distribution Company. More than 1,300 CNG owners are the shareholders in the company. The remaining station owners will also become part of the company soon.”

He said there were some issues pending with the SNGPL to supply LNG through pipelines. “The government will resolve the pending issues soon as per assurance of the petroleum minister,” he said. However, most of the CNG station owners were confused over the new system. “Mostly people do not trust the newly-formed private company as it demanded Rs2 million from the CNG filling station owners in the name of security,” said Ahsanul Haq, a CNG filling station owner at Sadiqabad.

He said there was also no clear government policy. “The petroleum minister announced to supply gas to the CNG stations but there is no notification about the prices of LNG,” he said. In many areas, CNG filling stations have switched to selling petrol or being converted into shopping malls. “We closed the CNG station after the imposition of the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess and increase in the CNG prices,” said Mohammad Khalid, a CNG station owner in Chaklala.

“The price of LNG is less than CNG and petrol but the government is yet to announce the prices of LNG,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2015

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