KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has said that the utility is actively pursuing efforts to fix the technical fault that caused a 30 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) shortfall, and the deficit was likely to be fully recovered within the next few days.

“Once normal supply levels resume, pressure tightness is anticipated to ease, restoring full service to households across Sindh and Balochistan,” it said.

A gas utility spokesperson said that as an unexpected cold snap swept across Pakistan, households in Sindh and Balochistan faced a sudden surge in natural gas demand, pushing the SSGC into emergency measures to protect the domestic supply.

She said that the winter spike, driven largely by increased use of geysers and space heaters, raised overall consumption by roughly 10per cent. “To bridge the gap, SSGC diverted about 90MMCFD of reliquefied natural gas into the network,” she said.

However, the spokesperson said a rapid temperature drop in recent days caused a further, unanticipated rise in household demand, extending cooking hours and intensifying morning and evening peaks.

She said that an upstream technical issue cut supply by an estimated 30MMCFD, compounding the situation and creating a shortfall that lowered distribution pressures in several tail-end localities.

“In response, SSGC activated its government-approved load management plan, which includes curtailing gas to fertiliser plants and enforcing weekly industrial closures to prioritise residential consumers,” she added.

The spokesperson said that domestic supply remained the gas utility’s first priority, in line with the prime minister’s directives and the approved load management framework. “The company pledges to maintain uninterrupted service from 5 am to 10pm daily, while deploying special 24-hour teams to address low-pressure complaints across the franchise areas,” she added.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2026