The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) said on Sunday that complaints of a suspected gas leak near Karachi’s Abul Hasan Isphahani Road since the previous night were due to the testing of odourisation plants during the commissioning of a new pipeline.

While gas is often thought to have a distinctive smell, it is in fact odourless. Gas suppliers deliberately add odorants to the gas as a safety measure to alert consumers to potentially life-threatening leaks.

In a media alert issued on Sunday, the SSGC said that odourants used to give gas its distinctive smell were added in larger quantities for testing purposes. This resulted in a stronger-than-usual smell, prompting reports of a gas leak from various parts of Karachi.

“The SSGC administration wishes to make it clear that all system pressures are normal and that no gas leak of any kind has been reported,” the statement said. “The smell is solely due to the relatively larger quantity of odourants added to the gas during the testing of the odourisation plants.”

The company requested its customers to remain calm and continue their regular activities.

Gas leaks can be life-threatening, causing explosions and fires as well as death by suffocation.

In January, three women suffocated to death, while another fainted in a gas leak incident in an apartment in Rawalpindi’s Bahria Town Phase VII.