KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) announced that it has started receiving normal gas pressure from Kunnar-Pasakhi Deep (KPD) gas field and is receiving 100 mmcfd gas to SSGC.
The spokesman of the SSGC said that with the completion of the annual turnaround of the upstream KPD gas field, SSGC will now be in a position to resume its normal supply to its customers. Now back online, KPD is currently providing 100 mmcfd to SSGC and would gradually ramp up its volume till July 7 when it would start supplying the full quantum of the normal 177 mmcfd gas.
During the closure of KPD that caused considerable inconvenience to the customers, in order to ensure sustained future supplies of natural gas, the Company implemented the Government of Pakistan’s Gas Load Management Plan of 2018 whereby the domestic and commercial customers were given top sectoral priority in the provision of gas, followed by other sectors.
Being the leading downstream company, SSGC has always shown firm commitment towards providing uninterrupted gas supply to all its categories of customers. The Company is happy to announce that the worst is over, thanks in part to its customers who fully cooperated with the gas utility during the maintenance work of KPD.
Context
Earlier, the business and industrial sector in Karachi was facing increasing difficulties due to the ongoing gas shortage issue in Sindh, as they feared that the situation could hamper their exports delivery.
The exporters said that that the low pressure of gas and frequent fluctuations had made it impossible for them to deliver export orders on time.
The current gas shortage situation in the province has arisen due to the temporary shutdown of Kunnar-Pasakhi Deep (KPD) Gas Field, one of the largest suppliers of natural gas, which was undergoing annual maintenance work, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) said in a statement.
“Under our load management plan, we are supplying gas to domestic consumers on a priority basis,” the SSGC spokesperson Shahbaz Islam told the media.
Due to the closure of the KPD field, SSGC was facing a shortage of 170 mmcfd gas.
SSGC has also stopped the supply of gas to non-export industries indefinitely. The shortage added with fluctuation in supply has dented industrial activity in Pakistan’s financial hub.
“It takes us hours to heat up boilers due to low gas pressure these days,” Abdul Hadi, president of the SITE Association of Industry, told Arab News. “Then there are frequent fluctuations that delay our production activities by about three to four hours a day.”
Hadi was of the view that the current situation was making it difficult for manufacturers to process export orders properly.
“If we fail to execute these orders on time, foreign buyers will move away from us and go to other manufacturers,” he said.
Exports play a vital role in Pakistan economy, which is battling a widening trade deficit. Exports posted a growth of 14 percent to $22.563 billion during the first 11 months (July-May) 2020-21 as compared to $19.801 billion in the corresponding period of 2019-20, according to the figures released by the ministry of commerce.
“Karachi’s share in Pakistan’s overall export is about 58 per cent,” Muhammad Zubair Motiwala, chairman of the Businessmen Group at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said. “It is up to the government to think how it is putting the country’s huge industrial exports from Karachi at stake.”
