Staff Report
ISLAMABAD:
The Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) on Friday announced to suspend gas supplies to all the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations and industries across Sindh and Balochistan for 72 hours due to a technical fault.
However, domestic and commercial customers would face no interruption in gas supplies.
As per details, SSGCL has been suffering interruptions of Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) supplies as terminal facing difficulties to berth vessel due to high tide vessels difficulties to get berth as terminal. And, from today (Friday morning at 08:00am to Sunday morning at 08:00am)) supplies to both the sectors have been halted. However SSGCL would continue to supply gas to the residential consumers.
So far, SSGCL has requested local exploration and production companies to expand their gas productions during the discontinuation of the gas supply and assured them of providing necessary support in this regard.
Due to this gas shortage, and low pressure complaints in certain parts of Karachi were made. The decision to suspend gas supply to CNG outlets was taken due to dry-docking (change of FSRU at Engro Terminal)
All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNA) said that CNG had lost its worth in the last one year due to its skyrocketing prices and massive shift by owners of CNG vehicles to petrol as the closure shifted the focus of the people towards petrol.
Reportedly, CNG sale in Sindh had dropped to 15-16mmcfd from 85-90mmcfd last year, while 35 stations have been closed down recently in Sindh due to high gas prices.
