Staff Report
KARACHI:
Sui Soutrhern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) on Tuesday suspended gas supply to all industries following temporary shutdown of the Kunner Pasaki Deep (KPD) SSGCL.
According to SSGCL, the current gas shortage situation in Sindh has arisen due to the temporary shutdown of Kunnar-Pasakhi Deep (KPD) Gas Field, one of the largest suppliers of natural gas, which is undergoing annual maintenance work. Due to the closure of KPD field, SSGC is facing a shortage of 170 mmcfd gas, a situation that is expected to last till the end of June 2021 when the field will resume its normal operations.
Immediately, after receiving intimation of the supply situation from the gas field operators, the Company started implementing the Government of Pakistan’s Gas Load Management Plan under which the domestic customers are given priority followed by the commercial customers. In order to meet the demand of both these customers, the CNG stations have been closed for a week in accordance with the Government’s Gas Load Management Plan. It must also be mentioned here that SSGC is providing K-Electric (KE) 150 mmcfd gas so that the people of Karachi do not suffer from power outages.
Currently due to the closure of the field, SSGC is being supplied 1060 MMCFD gas from various other fields. On the other hand, overall demand for gas is 1250 mmcfd gas out of which 910 mmcfd fuel is indigenous and 150 mmcfd RLNG.
It must be noted that SSGC is a downstream company involved in the distribution and transmission of gas and not in its exploration and production (E&P). While it takes steps to manage gas load effectively, SSGC requests all stakeholders to cooperate with the utility during the next couple of weeks, until normal gas supply is resumed.
