Not deterred by fizzling out of its previous gas load management plan, the ministry of petroleum has again convened a stakeholders meeting to finalise a new plan for January-March period on December 16. An official source said the gas load management plan will be finalised in consultation with the stakeholders to avoid any controversy and for its smooth implementation. He said the top priority of government remains the domestic sector which at present is facing extreme low gas pressures due to the non implementation of the gas load management plan. Government had earlier finalised a gas load management for the month of November, which decided that the industrial and CNG sectors both will get gas supply for four days a week. But the plan fizzled out after the Prime Minister directed supplying additional gas to the fertiliser sector to meet up urea shortages. Additional gas supplies to the fertiliser sector were diverted from the power sector, which let to an outage of 325 MW from the system. Since official agencies failed to make timely urea imports government decided to let the fertiliser sector have uninterrupted gas supplies even during December. The gas supply to fertiliser sector will be cut in January when it goes on its annual turnaround. This will ensure that 160 mmcfd gas is available from the sector. Power sector is an aspirant for getting additional gas along with the industrial sector, as it is the time when hydel power generation of 3800 MW will go out of the system with the closure of canals for annual clean up. Ministry of Water and Power has sought Rs10 billion from government to increase thermal power generation during 40 days canal closure period. An additional supply of 100 mmcfd will be linked to the national transmission network from Kunnar Pasaki Deep by the end of current month; the source said that the influential industrial groups were lobbying to get additional gas supply for their use. However, he said, the ministry has recommended allocating additional gas to the domestic sector to lessen their woes. The ministry has stressed implementation of nine month agreements with the industrial sector. The estimated shortage during the winter season is of 1.6 bcfd and the conditions during January and February would be very tight, the source said.
