PESHAWAR, March 18: The annual revenue of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) will improve by Rs25 billion from the existing Rs50 billion following the start of gas supplies from the newly discovered gas reserves in NWFP and other parts of the country, according to senior SNGPL official.
“The SNGPL’s annual revenue would rise to Rs75 billion with the availability of natural gas supplies from the newly discovered resources at Sawan, Zam Zama, Gurguray and Shakkar Darra gas fields,” SNGPL managing director Abdul Rasheed Loan told Dawn here on Tuesday.
Gas supply from the newly discovered reserves found at Gurguray, Karak in NWFP was expected to be commenced by the producer — the MOL, a Hungarian company — by the end of current year, or most probably during the first quarter of 2004, he said.
Initially, some 35 million cubic feet (mcf) per day gas would be supplied from the single well of the Gurguray field.
The producer, according to sources, had a plan to set up four wells by 2005 to increase daily supplies from the Gurguray field to 150 mcf per day.
As per understanding between the MOL and the SNGPL, the former would lay transmission line from Gurguray to Kohat to provide gas supplies from its well to the latter.
The SNGPL has planned to supply Gurguray field’s gas to its consumers in its Northern region by diverting it back to Fateh Jhang through reverse flow from Kohat.
The natural gas reserves found in the area close to Karak district of NWFP would be sufficient for 12 years, said the SNGPL managing director.
Similarly, gas supplies from Shakkar Darra near Kohat in NWFP, Zam Zama and Sawan gas fields would further improve the SNGPL’s capacity partly to overcome gas shortages the country may face from the financial year 2006-07, said the SNGPL sources.
The SNGPL is estimated to get 14 mcf gas every day from the Shakkar Darra oil and gas field near Kohat in NWFP and around 400 mcf from Zam Zama and Sawan gas fields.
Though gas reserves at Shakkar Darra were found much earlier than the discovery made at Gurguray, supply from the former could not be ensured at an early stage because of OGDC’s failure to lay transmission line.
Senior SNGPL officers told Dawn despite their organization’s offer, the OGDC decided to lay transmission line on its own from the Shakkar Darra field to Kohat to inject gas into the SNGPL’s distribution system.
Total cost of laying the transmission line had been estimated at Rs400 million. The sources said that non-availability of the required funds hampered the OGDC to undertake this important project, which would enable provision of 14 mcf gas every day for the next 12 to 14 years.
EMERGENCY PLAN: Earlier, top management of the SNGPL visited Peshawar on Tuesday to attend proceedings of their organization’s application submitted to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for the grant of integrated licence for transmission, distribution and sale of natural gas.
During the course of proceedings, presided over by the Ogra chairman, the SNGPL managing director submitted that his organization had sought help from the Ministry of Interior to improve the security of its assets, particularly 5,400 km long transmission line.
“We can not ensure protection to every feet of our transmission line, hence we asked for the ministry’s help to improve the security arrangements,” said Mr Loan, in reply to a question by Ogra’s court officer.
The SNGPL chief informed the Authority that in response to their request for greater security cover to the SNGPL’s transmission line in the backdrop of recent rocket attacks on part of its lines in Balochistan, the federal government had arranged deployment of 500 security personnel.