KARACHI, Dec 28: Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) has finalized arrangements to start billing its consumers from January 2002 based on the heating content instead of volume.

This was stated by the Managing Director, SSGCL, Mukhtar Ahmed while responding to a query by shareholders in 47th Annual General Meeting of the company held on Thursday.

He said that since March 2000, the company has been receiving gas from new discovered Zamzama Gas Field, which has a lower heating value as compared to the gas being received from the Sui Field.

The government has therefore taken a decision recently that gas prices should be based on heat content rather than volume.

The AGM, which approved the audited accounts for the year 2000-01, also approved a cash dividend of 15 per cent after a period of eight years as a result of improved profitability. The company earned a net profit of Rs1,292 million. The pre-tax profit rose by 31 per cent to Rs1,974 million in 2000-01 from Rs1,509 million in 1999-2000, says a press release.

Gas sales increased by 4.4 per cent over previous year in terms of volume and by 26.1 per cent in terms of value, excluding the sales tax.

Mukhtar said that during the year under review, gas sales agreements have been signed with the joint ventures responsible for development of Miano, Bhit and Sawan gas fields.

The company’s gas infrastructure is being rehabilitated and expanded to accommodate the substantial increase in gas availability from these indigenous sources.

The Hasan Gas Field, near Shikarpur, started supply of 8 mmcfd whereas Zamzama gas field near Dadu is providing about 70 mmcfd.

SSGC has taken more than 52,000 new consumers in its network system by laying 404-km long mains and service pipelines during the year. The company has provided gas to 1,569,380 industrial, commercial and domestic consumers in its franchise areas of Sindh and Balochistan.

The company had been able to reduce gas losses from 8.49 per cent to 8.36 per cent during the previous year. SSGC has divided its operational areas into 35 zones to reduce further losses.

SSGCL intends to sell more gas especially for power generation to Wapda and KESC with the projected increase in supply over the next two years.