It’s going to be a tough winter for the Punjab, as per a disclosure made by the federal petroleum minister ShahidKhakanAbbasi during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources.
Currently, the shortfall of gas for domestic consumers racks up to about 40 percent on the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) but it is set to increase. Due to this, consumers in the Punjab would be facing gas outages, specially during the working hours of the day.
This is a surprising state of affairs, considering the fact that the country is now importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG.) “Although the government is importing LNG, it could not be used by domestic consumers.”
The committee, which met with met with Bilal Virk in the chair, also discussed the use of social welfare funds by oil and gas exploration companies.
Petroleum ministry officials informed the panel that parliamentarians were not empowered to use this fund. But provincial governments were authorised to utilise it in the areas of exploration activities on community-based social welfare projects.
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Managing Director Sheikh ImranulHaque said the company had earned a profit of Rs10.2 billion this year. The company, he said, had earned Rs21 billion in profit in 2014, which declined to Rs6.9 billion last year.
In 2014, he said, independent power producers (IPPs) had also paid mark-up on outstanding dues to PSO. “PSO’s financial health is improving,” he claimed. The firm imported petroleum products worth Rs876 billion in 2013, Rs567 billion in 2014 and Rs349 billion in 2015.
Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) Managing Director AmjadLatif said gas worth Rs10 billion had been stolen in the SNGPL region. SNGPL received 130,500 complaints of gas theft.
Because of a ban on industrial and commercial gas connections, people are not only stealing gas from domestic connections but also securing domestic gas connections and using them for industrial and commercial purposes.
