ISLAMABAD: Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGP) has criticised the findings of an independent consultant appointed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on gas losses.

The company claimed that the consultant rejected the utility’s views while finalising the report. “KPMG Taseer Hadi and Company has drawn wrong conclusions in its report, which was clarified during the stakeholders’ awareness sessions conducted by Ogra in all major cities. But the consultants have not made corrections in their final report,” SNGP said.

Interestingly, SNGP also hired the same consultant on the desire of the government to assess its proposed plans for gas sector reforms, including the unbundling of SNGP itself. Yet SNGP said, “Some of the tasks recommended by the consultants are irrational and against international practices”.

The consultant had expressed concerns that actual unaccounted-for gas (UFG) swelled drastically over the past 10 years and that the two gas utilities did not have adequate measurement mechanism to properly quantify UFG contributing factors. “Sui companies are unable to determine the actual difference between the volume received and despatched for a particular network segment” and their claims about UFG contributing factors were “based on assumptions and estimates”.

SNGP said the report regarding its “inadequate measurement mechanism” was incorrect. It said SNGP followed international codes and standards applicable in the case of natural gas business where gas is measured at the custody transfer point (CTP). All CTPs — ie gas sources, sales meter stations and consumer meter stations — of SNGP are 100 per cent metered, it said.

The company also challenged the figure of 15pc UFG and the loss of 550 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), saying the total input of indigenous gas on the SNGP network was approximately 1,350mmcfd. This meant the loss of 550mmcfd worked out at 40pc, which was practically not possible, it added.

It said Ogra had determined SNGP’s UFG at 9.21pc or the volumetric loss of 127mmcfd.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2017