ISLAMABAD: Get ready! There will be no gas for CNG stations at all in the winter season, meaning that 3,180,000 CNG-run vehicles will be forced to use alternate fuels such as motor spirit (petrol) and diesel, particularly in December, January and February. About 40-50 million people, who daily travel on CNG-run vehicles, will be exposed to massive hike in transport fares when the vehicles will use petrol and diesel in the winter season.
“We have been clearly told by the Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry that there will be zero gas supply to the CNG sector,” Ghayas Paracha, Chairman of the All Pakistan CNG Association, said this during a briefing by the National Committee on Oil and Gas here on Friday.
In his presentation, he severely criticised the government functionaries for not properly implementing the policy of gas load management, saying: “The government is not only breaching the load management, but also engaged in violating agreements with the industrial sector as well as with Engro fertilisers. This is the main reason for the gas crisis.”
He said 100 million cubic feet gas was diverted to Sindh from the Punjab daily. “If this amount of gas is ensured in the Punjab’s system, there will be massive reduction in gas outages.” He said the government provided the gas to industrial sector in the winter season despite the fact that the sector had an agreement with the government that it would be provided gas for nine months and for three months of the winter season (December, January and February), gas would not be provided to the industrial sector. “But, the government provides gas to the industrial sector even in winter, which is a flagrant violation of the agreement. And the severe impact of this violation trickles down to CNG and domestic sectors.
“The fact is that the industrial sector is massively involved in stealing gas,” Paracha said, adding the tariff of industrial sector stood at Rs350 per mmbtu whereas the tariff for CNG was Rs504.63 per mmbtu and the tariff for the fertiliser sector was nominal, which stood at Rs50-100 per mmbtu. He said his sector paid much more to the government not only in terms of tariff, but also in terms of taxes. He said the CNG sector paid 26 percent sales tax and four percent advance tax. Moreover, the CNG fuel is environment friendly.
Paracha also highlighted the Unaccounted For Gas (UFG) had increased to 12 percent from four percent, meaning that the huge gas valuing at $2 billion was stolen and if the government succeeded to curb the UFG and bring it to a reasonable level, the gas crisis issue could be coped with to a large extent.
He said other six stakeholders for gas consumption never liked to sit with the CNG sector to prioritise the gas allocation. “Since they are powerful and influence the authorities concerned from the office of the top man, the gas load management policy and agreements with the industrial sector are not being implemented aggravating the gas crisis further.”
He said the Engro group was powerful and getting illegal gas from Qadirpur Gas Field but from the system of SNGPL. Ogra’s acting chief, on the occasion, admitted that under the agreement, the Engro fertiliser plant was to be provided 100mmcfd gas from the Qadirpur Gas Field provided its production of 100mmcfd gas was increased, but unfortunately 200mmcfd gas had decreased in the gas field, but still Engro was being provided gas.
Additional Secretary Naeem Malik tried to dispel the impression that the government and Engro were involved in breaching the agreement. However, the acting Ogra chairman contradicted him and admitted that the agreement was being violated.
Earlier, Petroleum and Natural Resources Secretary Mohammad Ejaz Chaudhry said the gas production of the country stood at four billion cubic feet (bcf) per day whereas the demand was 6bcf, showing 2bcf per day deficit. “This deficit is being managed by the government under the gas load management policy. We have asked all the stakeholders to sit together and give us a recipe to handle the gas load management, but so far the stakeholders have not done their job.”
“We have 40 to 50 gas fields out of which one or two gas fields are non-operative all the time owing to maintenance issues and practically we get 3.5bcf gas, which means there is a gas deficit of 2.5bcf per day in the country”. He said the gas supply had been reduced by 21 percent in every sector of economy that included commercial, industrial, fertiliser, power, and captive power except domestic sector.
Chaudhry said if the gas supply to fertiliser sector was not given, the government would have to import fertilisers valuing at Rs15 billion. He said there were three fertiliser plants out of which two plants are non-operational because of want of gas.
Source: The news
