KARACHI: Gas theft worth Rs147 million (2,000 tonnes) was reported in 2016 at Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd’s import terminal at Port Qasim, the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Distributors Association Pakistan (LPGDAP) has alleged. Giving a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, LPGDAP chairman Irfan Khokhar blamed “black sheep” in the SSGC for the theft.

He said a delegation of the association met Acting Managing Director of SSGC Mohammad Amin Rajput on Wednesday to discuss the issue, and the state-owned gas utility has tasked itself to investigate the theft and come up with a set of recommendations in seven days to end the malpractice.

A delegation of the association also visited the LPG import terminal last month and handed over evidence of the theft to the officials concerned.

Mr Khokhar claimed that Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and SSGC Chairman Miftah Ismail have also directed SSGC officials to address the issue as soon as possible.

He said total sales of LPG swelled to around 1.2 million tonnes in 2016, of which 532,918 tonnes were imported and 648,802 tonnes were produced locally. In 2015, overall sales stood at 875,087 tonnes, including 245,578 imports while 629,509 tonnes came from local production.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2017