The already gas crisis hit consumers of CNG in Sindh and Balochistan have now started facing another prolonged breakdown of 36 hours from Wednesday night to Friday morning owing to a blowup of high pressure gas pipeline in Balochistan. According to Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), a serious incident of insurgency occurred at 01:30 am on January 04, 2011 near the village Khudad Jhakarani in district Jafarabad in Balochistan.
As a result of the incident the SSGC’s high pressure 18 inch diameter gas pipeline was blown up by some unknown miscreants. The incident was caused by an explosive device, resulting in an 8 to 10 feet deep trough and rupturing the nearly 50 feet long pipeline in a tract of wet muddy land. The pipeline was carrying 114 million cubic feet gas daily (mmcfd) from Sui gas field to SSGC’s pipeline system at Shikarpur, for its onward transmission to entire Balochistan.
In the aftermath of the incident, the effected section of pipeline was immediately isolated. At the same time, company’s emergency response team rushed to the site from Shikarpur to inspect the situation, which is awaiting permission by security agencies, who are engaged in clearance of the aforementioned area. Another team was also mobilised from Karachi, early this morning, carrying heavy repair equipments and necessary material.
SSGC is trying its best to manage smooth and uninterrupted gas supply to customers of Balochistan, who are combating freezing temperatures nowadays. To manage the gas load, that was lost due to pipeline rupture, SSGC has announced a ‘shut down’ for all CNG stations in its franchise area of Sindh and Balochistan for a period of 36 hours. Henceforth, all CNG stations will be closed from 08:00 pm on Wednesday 04 January 2012 till 8:00 am on Friday 06 January 2012. As a corollary of this shortfall, SSGC management has requested its valued domestic, commercial and industrial customers to voluntarily curtail the use of gas by 20 per cent immediately or else the customers would have to bear unfathomable gas shortage. However, SSGC assured that it will spare no effort to maintain uninterrupted supply of natural gas to its valued domestic, commercial and industrial customers.