The CNG stations would remain closed for three days a week after Eid, as the cabinet had approved the Gas Act, which was expected to reduce gas theft in the country, said Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) Managing Director (MD) Arif Hameed at a press conference on Monday.
SNGPL General Manager Abdul Haseeb and other senior officials were also present on the occasion. The SNGPL MD said the Qadirpure Gas Fields would remain closed for annual turn around (ATA) from August 29 to September 17. The company would maintain gas load management plan for different sectors including industrial, CNG, power and fertilizers sectors, he said. “We have given priority to domestic and commercial consumers and we hope they would not be affected during the closure of Qadirpure Gas Fields,” Hameed said, adding there would be no gas shutdown during Eid holidays i.e. August 29 to September 6. However, after Eid, the CNG stations would follow the normal schedule of three-day closure every week.
Hameed said the company would not provide gas to IPPs around Lahore from August 29 to September 17. He said currently gas was being provided to two IPPs around Lahore with allocation of 38mmcfd each. “Gas is also being supplied to the fertiliser sector with a 20 percent reduction in their sanctioned load.”
He said SNGPL would be facing additional shortfall of 400mmcfd from August 29 to September 7 and 250mmcfd from September 8 to 17. He said gas theft had been reduced in recent months because of the steps taken by the company. “Earlier, a task force for gas theft operated from the SNGPL head office but now we have decentralised it to all regions,” the MD said, adding that unaccounted-for gas (UFG) jumped to 12.49 percent in the first 10 months of 2010-11, which had been reduced to 9.33 percent. He said the cabinet had approved the Gas Act and after enforcement of the act, gas theft would be reduced.
To a question about possible punishment and imprisonment for gas thieves, he said that it was not certain what would be the penalties for the thieves in the Gas Act. He said the SNGPL’s overdue receivables as of June 30 were reduced from Rs 29.62 billion to Rs 20.21 billion. “It was because of the hard efforts of SNGPL that the recoveries improved,” he said, adding the company would set up its recovery drive after Eid from industrial, commercial, domestic and government gas bill defaulters. He said the company had increased its transmission and distribution networks from 87,746 kilometres in March 2011 to 89,441 kilometres in June 2011. He said 105,223 new consumers had been added to the system and by June 2011, the number of consumers had risen to 3.96 million.
To a question, he said according to Article 158, the locals had more right to the resources. He said because of this article, Punjab was given gas after catering to the needs of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KP). “Currently, Punjab has only 7 percent of the total gas explored in the country, whereas its needs are far higher. Therefore we have to look towards Sindh and KP to fulfil the needs of Punjab,” Arif Hameed added. He said looking at the situation, the SNGPL was planning to get Liquefied Natural Gas from Karachi to Nawabshah and then to Punjab.
Happy Eid for every ones
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