MINISTER for Petroleum Ali Pervez Malik on Monday directed gas utilities to ensure uninterrupted supply to consumers during winter.
Chairing a meeting on seasonal gas load management, Malik said that all necessary steps must be taken to facilitate the public during the winter months and confirmed that gas companies had been issued the required instructions in this regard.
Gas is one of the basic necessities of life but unfortunately we have no clear strategy to ensure its uninterrupted supply to different categories of consumers. This is despite the fact that the supplies have improved as is evident from the decision of the government to defer import of contracted LNG cargoes from Qatar and other sources due to a consistent surplus. However, this surplus has not translated into proper supply of the utility to the consumers. The Minister noted that domestic gas supply this year was “significantly better” compared to last winter and as per claims of Managing Director of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL), consumers were receiving gas not only during mealtimes but also from 5am to 10pm but this is not the case in all localities as majority of areas either do not receive gas at all or its pressure is too low for proper utilization. In fact, there is no genuine justification for so-called load management when rates for Sui gas are excessively high except for the protected category and new connections are being provided at market rates of LNG.
