KARACHI: Zarghoon Gas Pipeline Project in Balochistan will be completed during the next month at a cost of Rs1.458 billion, Managing Director Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) Zuhair Siddiqui said, according to a press release issued on Wednesday.

The project, consists of around 64km-long pipeline network, would add 25 mmcfd (millions cubic feet per day) gas to the company’s system that would be provided to Quetta, he told Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who visited SSGC head office on Tuesday.

Siddiqui said SSGC was laying down another pipeline network — around 85km long — for Rs878m Jhal Magsi Gas Pipeline project.

He highlighted some basic difficulties in this regard, for which the Federal Secretary for Ministry of Petroleum Abid Saeed assured his cooperation.

The MD said import of LNG is company’s top priority. He highlighted different hurdles being faced by the company’s management in this regard.

The federal minister gave suggestions and instructions to SSGC management for addressing these issues.

Siddiqui said Sinjhoro, Kunnar Pasakhi, Mehar, Rehman and Nar Baghla gas supply projects were completed at a cost of Rs2.554bn, comprising of 206km-long pipelines that added around 220 mmcfd gas in SSGC’s system.

On the progress of Natural Gas Efficiency Project (NGEP), he said that after the completion of the said project the company would be in a position to bring down its distribution line losses to six per cent a year in 2017, from the current 10.8 per cent. He was hopeful that the initial activities for the project would start from next month.

He also informed Abbasi about the huge receivables of Rs50.53bn from the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) and Rs16.32bn from Pakistan Steel Mills which are due since long.

He said the KESC was not acknowledging the late payment surcharge while the SSGC is supplying around 220mmcfd of gas to the power utility without any gas sales agreement (GSA).

He urged the federal minister to facilitate SSGC in recovering these outstanding dues. He added that another Rs10bn is to be recovered from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Saeed assured the SSGC management that a meeting would soon be held in Islamabad in this regard.