KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has been forced to restrict supply to domestic consumers three meal times a day because of depleting indigenous production over the past decade, its managing director said on Saturday.
According to Muhammad Amin Rajput, the schedule was necessary as the country’s gas production had fallen about 50 per cent over the last decade, while imported LNG supplies, too, were hard to come by since April due to the Iran war.
“By focusing on supply during cooking hours, the company can protect domestic consumers,” the managing director said in an exclusive interview with Dawn.
He said SSGC’s gas availability had fallen to around 605 million cubic feet per day due to depletion in gas fields, compared with 695mmcfd last year. “Of this, around 300mmcfd is being given to domestic consumers, while the rest is supplied to industry, power and fertiliser sectors,” Mr Rajput added.
The utility has decided to supply gas during the breakfast, lunch and dinner windows to ensure that every household got the fuel when it mattered most. “The SSGC has been monitoring availability continuously since last week,” Mr Rajput said.
Supply to households restricted to three meal times
He said domestic gas supply in the city was adequate. Residents in many areas, however, complained the flame was too low for cooking purposes.
“A localised issue should not be generalised across the entire network that serves roughly 50,000 kilometres of pipelines, 16,000 of them in Karachi alone. The SSGC has 3.2 million customers across Sindh and Balochistan, including two million in Karachi,” Mr Rajput observed.
Use of compressors, pumps
The SSGC MD blamed the low pressure on the illegal use of gas compressors and suction pumps. These devices can drain away the supply to an entire block or building, he cautioned. “Besides being illegal, substandard devices pose safety risks and have caused property damage, and sometimes even loss of life.”
Mr Rajput urged consumers to report such use, saying that removing the devices would help restore pressure during supply hours, even though they may inflate bills by distorting meter readings.
He said his company had rehabilitated about 7,000 kilometres of distribution pipelines in 2025-26, replacing ageing and corroded pipes, mostly in Karachi. “That has improved pressure at tail-end locations and reduced unaccounted-for gas.”
He said the situation was further compounded by substantially reduced availability of RLNG supplies from Qatar. “Besides meeting domestic requirements, the Petroleum Division has secured limited gas supplies to meet other critical needs. These include the power and fertiliser sectors,” the SSGC chief said.
These competing requirements call for prudent management and judicious allocation of available resources.
Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2026
