Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal Khan Friday informed the National Assembly that low gas pressure and load-shedding issue of Sector G-7 would be resolved soon.
He was responding to a call of attention notice of Mohammad Ayaz Soomro, Dr. Mahreen Razaque Bhutto and others regarding prolonged load-shedding in the federal capital especially in Sector G-7, causing concern among the public.
He said there are 12,000 gas connections in Sector G-7 and the tail-end consumers, particularly consumers of sector G-7/1 are facing the problem.
He said 60 percent of the issue has been resolved after augmentation of pipelines in Sector G-7/2 and G-7/3, adding that augmentation of Sector G-7/1 is also going on and the situation will be improved.
He said main reason of low gas pressure and load-shedding in the sector is settlement of ‘Katchi Abadi’ in large number. The movers were critical of low gas pressure issue in winter season throughout the country and said that it not only affect the domestic consumers but also the industrial sector.
Jam Kamal said that there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of natural gas, adding that total production of gas is 4 billion cubic feet per day (BCFP) while the demand is 6 BCFD and there is a deficit of two BCFD.
He said all efforts are being made to explore new resources of gas in the country besides the government is also importing Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) to meet the demand.
He added that ground breaking of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline is being held in December in Turkmenistan and this gigantic project will be completed in three to four years.