To curb the rising menace of natural gas theft, petroleum ministry has issued strict instructions to Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to grant no stay in cases where gas meters and connections were disconnected by gas utility companies. An official source said state owned gas utility companies had raised the issue with the ministry saying that intervention of OGRA was not only helping in gas theft but also creating other malpractices. OGRA was directed not to process any such complaints in future and if there was need to amend regulations was required it should be done immediately. Rise in unaccounted for gas (UFG) which means difference between total volume of gas purchased by the companies and volume of metered gas supplied to consumers. UFG levels of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) have remained abnormally high of over 13 per cent last fiscal year. International bench mark of UFG for companies is four per cent. According to OGRA estimates one per cent of UFG of both companies at average price of fiscal year 2009-10 translated to a revenue loss of Rs2.5b per year. Massive monetary losses in the form of high UFG losses are recovered by utilities by passing on the impact to consumers. Effective enforcement of UFG benchmarks could result in savings for consumers. Both companies, SSGCL and SNGPL, had filed petitions for review of UFG benchmarks as they claimed they were facing gas theft due to law and order situation in certain areas. Government has recently imposed gas theft act which allows imprisonment and fining people involved in gas theft. OGRA has recently recommended to the government an increase of 11 to 14 per cent in gas tariff of two gas utilities from January 01, 2012. OGRA has proposed an increase of Rs43.92 per mmBTU in tariff of SNGPL and an increase of Rs34 per mmBTU in tariff of SSGCL. If the recommended tariff is increased by government, domestic consumers will be most affected. The source said OGRA wanted to fix UFG at lower level but it was opposed by gas companies, as they wanted it to be maintained on the higher side to recover their financial losses due to theft and increase in staff. Government had forced gas utilises to re-induct 7,000 terminated employees back in their cadres.
