QUETTA, Dec 31: With a natural gas production of four billion cubic feet, the country is facing a shortage of about two billion cubic feet and reserves are depleting.

“Pakistan needs over six billion cubic feet of natural gas for fulfilling requirements of all the provinces,” Sui Southern Gas Company's Deputy managing director Syed Hasan Nawab said at a press conference here on Friday.

He said no work had been done since 2005 for exploring new gas reserves and consumption was increasing.

He said most of the industries were based on natural gas and were being badly affected by the shortage.

“Many investors could not set up new industrial units because of lack of supply.”

He said the government was striving for gas supply from Iran, Turkmenistan and other sources in view of the increasing national requirement which would reach 10 billion cubic feet by 2020.

The official said gas was the cheapest source of energy and was fulfilling half of the country's needs, while oil, coal and electricity were meeting the remaining requirement.

He said the SSGC was supplying gas to 2.2 million consumers in Sindh and Balochistan, 1.5 million of them in Karachi. Balochistan has 200,000 consumers, including 140,000 domestic users.

He said the gas reserves discovered three years ago in Zarghoon, 60km from Quetta, had not been linked with the SSGC distribution system because of security reasons.

He said efforts were under way to connect the gas field with the distribution system and the SSGC was ready to lay a pipeline from Zarghoon to Quetta to solve the problems of low pressure in the city and other areas in Balochistan.

The official said the company was suffering a 79 per cent loss because of gas theft, faulty meters and leakage.

About 70 per cent consumers in Quetta had not paid their dues and the situation was similar in other towns in the province, he said.

He said that Balochistan government and other consumers had to pay Rs588 million. The dues on domestic consumers are over Rs425 million.

“We will recover Rs120 million outstanding against provincial government departments.”

Mr Nawab appealed to the consumers to clear their dues.

He said the SSGC was bound under government's instructions to give priority in the supply to domestic consumers.

Stressing the need for using coal from Thar and Balochistan for producing electricity, he said half of the power plants were running on natural gas, resulting in a shortage for domestic consumers.

Replying to a question, he said lack of awareness and use of substandard gas heaters were the main reasons of deaths caused by suffocation during winter. He said manufacturing of substandard heaters should be banned.