PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and other stakeholders to evolve a joint plan for provision of natural gas to domestic consumers in the province and submit a report in this regard.

A bench consisting of PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor observed that owing to mushroom growth of CNG stations, the domestic consumers were suffering.

The bench fixed May 9 for next hearing of a petition against the outages and low pressure of natural gas supplied to domestic consumers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The petition has been filed by Advocate Abbas Khan Sangeen, who has requested the court to declare gas loadshedding and low pressure unconstitutional and illegal.

Domestic consumers suffer owing to mushroom growth of CNG stations, court observes

The bench observed that the domestic consumers had been facing shortage of gas while quarters the concerned were supplying it to CNG stations. The bench further observed that at least two CNG stations were set up after each kilometre on main roads.

Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority Chairman Masroor Khan informed the bench that the authority was only issuing licences to CNG stations and not providing natural gas to it.

He said that no licence was issued for setting up of new station from 2011 till 2020. However, he added that after 2020, only 43 new licences were issued in accordance with the government policy.

The Ogra chairman said that provision of natural gas was the responsibility of SNGPL. He added that unless NOC was issued by the company, Ogra could not issue a licence for establishment of a CNG station. The bench also inquired as to who was fixing CNG retail price.

The Ogra chairman said that till 2016 the authority had the power to do so, however, now the decision had to be taken by CNG Association. The bench wondered as to how free hand could be given to the association to determine CNG prices.

The petitioner contended that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) violated Article 158 of Constitution and a high court’s judgement by resorting to gas outages and low pressure.

He said that Article 158 of Constitution declared that the province, where a wellhead of natural gas was located, should have precedence over other parts of the country about benefits from that wellhead.

Mr Abbas said that in 2011, a high court bench had pronounced that supply of natural gas should remain uninterrupted to the areas producing it.

He claimed that that the overall consumption of natural gas by consumers in KP in winter season was around 350 MMCFD whereas the production in the province was from 400 to 450 MMCFD. He said when there was already shortage of natural gas then why the authorities were allowing establishment of CNG stations in close vicinity to the existing ones.

The petroleum secretary and SNGPL general manager in their respective comments contended that the petition was not maintainable, so it should be dismissed.

The secretary said that demand of gas in the country was in excess of the local supply and the federal government was making ‘all out efforts’ to meet the nationwide demand.

He said that government, to manage gas allocation and load management, approved Natural Gas Allocation and Management Policy, 2005, which declared domestic consumers top priority for gas supply.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2023