Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has blamed the federal government for gas supply cut in Punjab, especially in Faisalabad that has led to the closure of business industry in the financial hub of the province. The fact remains as the depleting indigenous reserves of natural gas has plummeted the country in a spiral of energy crisis. By the mid 1980s, the power sector was being reconstructed to accommodate the extensive supply of natural gas. Consequently, natural gas displaced other fuel sources to emerge as the dominant source reining the energy mix. By 2009, its share in the energy supplied stood at 48.03% and was accounting for 34.3% of the electricity generated. By 2007, the per capita gas consumption ranked stood at 186.959cu/m per capita, ranking Pakistan as the 73rd greatest consumer of natural gas in the world, ahead of all its South Asian counterparts.
Additionally, according to the International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles, as of December 2008, Pakistan has the worlds highest number of vehicles running on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). The acute dependency on natural gas was fostered by structural changes inspired by government policy and plans and consequently led to the rapid depletion of the finite gas reserves. Today not only has the shortfall between gas demanded and supplied reached alarming heights of 700 MMCFD but it is predicted that even with the generous expectation of new discoveries of reserves, it will be almost impossible to maintain even the present production for long.
DR SHER KHAN
Islamabad
