ISLAMABAD: The Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Saturday increased the ratio of line losses for gas utility companies up to 300 per cent on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which will be paid by small users, including domestic consumers, hotels and the CNG sector.

Ogra notified weighted average sale price of LNG without GST for last two months (January-February) for consumers. Distribution losses for Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) have been enhanced to 18.28pc from January, which were 6.30pc in December 2021. Similarly, distribution losses have been allowed up to 12.32pc for the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd (SNGPL) from January which were 6.30pc in December 2021. At the same time, transmission losses for RLNG have been unchanged – at 0.38pc for the SNGPL and 0.12pc for the SSGC.

Experts said transmission losses are billed to bulk consumers – IPPs, industrial consumers – whereas small consumers, including domestic users, are categories billed under distribution losses by SSGC and SNGPL.

“This is the reason that despite purchasing cheaper LNG cargoes in January and February, gas price was not lowered for domestic consumers,” said Ghiyas Paracha, the chairman of CNG Association of Pakistan.

The notification issued by Ogra highlighted the weighted average sale price of RLNG for the consumers at transmission network for February is $11.543 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) for SSGC consumers. However, the same for the consumers at distribution network has been calculated at $14.078 per mmBtu due to changes in the gas loss benchmark.

For SNGPL, the weighted average sale price of RLNG to consumers at transmission network in February is $11.819 per mmBtu and those at distribution network is $13.376 per mmBtu.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2022