LAHORE: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has said that its Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) consumption accounts for 55 per cent of the total supplies due to a massive decline in the indigenous supplies, which is increasing its dependence on RLNG.

“The country’s indigenous supplies are continually decreasing and its gas supplies now comprise around 55pc RLNG. The dependence on such gas will therefore continue to increase for being cheaper than alternate fuels,” SNGPL Managing Director Ali J. Hamdani said while speaking at a corporate briefing the company organised for analysts, investors and shareholders on Friday.

“The government is also planning to introduce the weighted average cost of gas, which will mitigate and reduce the high price of RLNG for the public.”

The management briefed the audience that the company’s share in the country’s overall energy mix is around 30pc, while its share in the gas sector is approximately 70pc, including supply of RLNG to meet the energy demands of the country.

At the session arranged at the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi, the MD briefed the audience about the vision 2025, financial performance and future outlook of SNGPL.

Besides the MD, the briefing team comprised Chief Financial Officer Faisal Iqbal, Business Development Senior General Manager (SGM) Syed Jawad Naseem, SGM (Distribution) Qaiser Masood and Secretary Imtiaz Mehmood.

“Our profitability stood at Rs6 billion in FY 2019-20. The first quarter profitability for FY 2020-21 ending on June 30 increased to Rs3.2bn as compared to Rs1.9bn in FY 2019-2020. This increase in profitability is due to interest rate reduction and significant reduction in UFG (unaccounted for gas) which shows the relentless commitment of the company towards its total turnaround,” Mr Hamdani claimed.

Talking about the future outlook of the company, the management highlighted their future vision and targets, including diversification/integration of existing business, enhancing the use of modern technology to increase efficiency, continuous upgrading and rehabilitation of gas infrastructure, improvement in customer services and complaints redressal through e-kachehri.

They also talked about the initiatives for digitisation being taken by the company to facilitate the consumers at their doorsteps. The SNGPL team said the consumers could communicate their queries and lodge complaints through the company’s official social media accounts. It also emphasised the importance of investing in capacity building of human resource and gender diversity.

Later, the SNGPL MD told Dawn that under the law, the company was required to hold a briefing for the corporate sector (its shareholders and stakeholders) at the PSE within 30 days of the annual general meeting.

To a question, he said the total indigenous gas production consisting of at least two kinds or qualities was about 3,500 million cubic feet of gas (MMCFD) per day. “Of this, about 1,800MMCFD is usable while the rest doesn’t come to the system for being substandard.”

While expressing concern over the fast depletion of the indigenous gas supplies, Mr Hamdani recommended following the concept of enhanced oil/gas recovery as practiced in the developed world to increase gas production.

“The government has reportedly got gas exploration started in five to 10 blocks,” the MD added.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2021