LAHORE, July 9: The Managing Director of SNGPL, Arif Hameed, on Monday warned the industry of serious gas shortages in winter this year stating that the gas tariff would also be revised upward to speed up exploration.
Speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), he said that a massive gas load-shedding awaits industrial consumers this winter as the Punjab faces a severe deficit at the moment.
Currently, the country is facing an acute shortage, which would further worsen during upcoming December and January. He said that in the new gas policy, the gas tariff would be improved to facilitate gas exploration.
He, however, said a number of projects are well on way to introduce LPG as an alternate fuel.
The SNGPL is advising new housing societies to put up LPG plants as there is moratorium on supply of gas to new industrial units and residential societies.
Mr Hameed admitted that due to high gas tariff, the pilferage of gas has increased but the SNGPL has introduced new technology to detect theft.
On Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project, the SNGPL MD said that tenders for the said projects had already been issued.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the shortage of natural gas had become a burning issue as last year the industry was provided gas for only 180 days and there was an urgent need to find new gas reserves to meet the national demand in future.
He said that the SNGPL had done a good job on gas theft issue but the current line losses were over 10 per cent, which are too high as compared to 4 per cent in recent past. “The LCCI understands that minimizing the pilferage can result in more revenue collection as well as fair load management.”
It has been seen that SNGPL is expanding its system without considering the increasing gap of gas supply and demand. Gas shortfall is estimated to reach 2.5 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) in 2014-15, 3 BCFD in 2015-16 and 3.5 BCFD in 2016-17. Hence, the gap is likely to shoot up to 5 BCFD in 2020-21, unless major gas discoveries and fielddevelopments are made.
Irfan said that the LCCI members often complain of the rigid behaviour of the staff of SNGPL with regard to imposing penalties unilaterally. Without serving any show-cause notice to the clients, their meters are disconnected for lab testing.
The LCCI suggests that the concerned clients should be informed before taking any action and there should be third party testing or inspection. Despite making number of complaints about low gas pressure, there are still many industries that are suffering to a great extent. Their whole lot/batch gets wasted and they remain under this fear while making productions.
He said that the investment in gas exploration and extraction was seriously lagging behind demand trends. As a result the country continues to rely heavily on furnace oil. It is suggested to restructure the gas sector to make it more efficient and to attract private sector investments.
The reserves at Kunar Peshaki near Hyderabad could produce 280mcf of gas per day. These reserves could be vital to improve the supply position and bridge the present shortfall.
There are known gas reserves at Kohlu as well.
He said that Pak-Iran Gas Pipeline Project can rescue the industry from the crisis. The work on construction of 785-km gas pipeline should be accelerated on emergent basis.