0
LAHORE: Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain on Friday gave a commitment to the industry in Punjab that its suspended gas supplies would be restored for a minimum of two days a week from Monday.
The minister also promised to increase gas supplies to the industrial consumers in the province to three and a half days a week later on if “permitted by weather”.
Dr Hussain, who spent over five hours with businessmen led by former All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) chairman Gohar Ejaz first at the offices of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and later at the Punjab Governor’s House, had arrived here on the directions of President Asif Zardari.
The president had asked Governor Latif Khosa to arrange a meeting between the minister and the Aptma leadership after thousands of large-scale textile industry workers and factory owners staged a protest against gas cuts to the industry on Wednesday.
The minister also met Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry officials and representatives of Faisalabad industry along with the Aptma leadership at the SNGPL offices. Later, he had a detailed meeting with the Aptma leadership at the Governor’s House before announcing his decision.
The gas supplies to the industry in Punjab were cut by the SNGPL on Dec 25 for an indefinite period as its domestic demand soared on falling temperatures.
Ever since the factory owners and industrial workers are on the streets to protest against what they term as their economic murder. The chambers from across the province also plan a large protest against gas cuts for Saturday.
The minister, however, told the industry representatives that it would not be possible for him to “fully” restore their supplies in view of high domestic gas consumption in the northern parts of the country until the cold wave subsided.The businessmen demanded an even playing field for the industry in Punjab and equitable sharing of gas shortages between all the provinces and different sectors of the economy, including CNG stations.
Only domestic and CNG consumers are getting gas in Punjab at the moment.
“We want the same treatment in the matter of distribution of gas supplies as is being meted out to the industry in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,” Gohar told the minister.
He said the industry in Punjab had to bear an additional cost of Rs30-35 billion in past 12 months by operating on alternate, expensive fuels. Though the minister offered Aptma leaders to restore their supplies for four days a week, Gohar said it should be equitable and for the entire industry in the province even it meant everyone getting the fuel for just two days a week.
Aptma-Punjab chairman Ahsan Bashir urged the government to declare Punjab a calamity-hit area in view of the acute gas and power shortages. He said since the industries in Punjab remained closed for six months due to Punjab-specific gas cuts the government should bear the interest cost of the industrial loans. He also said the banks should be asked to defer repayments of loans for one year.
He suggested short to long term solutions for overcoming the perennial energy crunch, proposing to revive dormant gas fields with the capacity of adding 429 mmcfd to the system in one to three months.
He said the businessmen were ready to help the government in the revival of the dormant fields. In the medium term, he said, LPG should be added to and distributed through the SNGPL network in order to bring down its price. The SNGPL could revise the tariff according to its weighted average price.
He said the long-term solution was to import LNG, which required an investment of $200 million. He said the businessmen were also ready to finance the project. On his proposal, the minister agreed to take steps for the revival of one dormant field producing 100 mmcfd gas and distribute its flow equally between Punjab and Sindh.
Separately, LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh had urged the minister to immediately stop giving new connections across the country for gas management.
