KE to receive conditional gas supply on match days

KARACHI: Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) Limited has hinted at providing conditional gas supply to K-Electric (KE) on the days of the T20I matches between Pakistan and West Indies.

In a letter written to Commissioner Karachi Ejaz Ahmed Khan on Saturday, the gas utility said: “gas to K-Electric can be increased to some extent for four (04) days only during the Cricket Matches at Karachi.”

The West Indies cricket team is currently touring Pakistan and will play three T20I in Karachi’s National Stadium, starting Sunday.

However, KE will have to agree to some of SSGC’s conditions including coming to the table for signing the Gas Supply Agreement (GSA), paying the security deposit and clearing outstanding dues, to materialise this agreement.

The company further mentioned that it does not have surplus volume available to supply KE, therefore for the proposed arrangement the gas company will curtail supplies to the industrial sector and Jamshoro Power Company.

The tussle between KE and SSGC took an ugly turn as they took their banter online after load-shedding resumed in Karachi this past week.

KE cited low gas pressure from SSGC as the reason behind the load-shedding.

SSGC, a government-run organisation managing natural gas assets, rebuffed KE’s claim by calling it ‘misleading’. The company maintained that regular gas supply is being provided to KE despite it being the primary defaulter of the organisation.

KE says it is getting only 90 mmcfd of gas at the moment, which is insufficient to meet the energy demands of consumers, compared to an average of 163 mmcfd in summer 2017 and 193 mmcfd in summer 2016.

According to SSGC, the GSA between the two companies is for 10 mmcfd only, but SSGC is continuing to supply around 95 mmcfd of gas to KE in the larger interest of the people of Karachi.

SSGC also claims that KE owes it Rs80 billion. On the other hand, KE says the principal outstanding amount is Rs 13.7 billion and that it has made all current payments to SSGC consistently for five years.