Industrial estates including the SITE Industrial Area have been expressing their grievances against low gas pressure ever since the advent of the current winter season. At the onset, it must be understood that demand for natural gas undergoes a wide seasonal variation during the winter months, resulting in demand exceeding the supply thus leading to a drastic decrease in gas pressure in the system. This low pressure problem invariably affects residential areas as well as industrial estates which includes SITE. During this current winter, while the total demand during the winters has shot up to 1,590 mmcfd, supply is 1,210 mmcfd, which implies a shortfall of 390 mmcfd.
In the interest of maintaining equity where gas supply is concerned, SSGC has for quite some time been constrained to implement a gas load management plan for the CNG and power sector to ensure that domestic customers do not bear the brunt of low gas pressure. As per the gas load management plan, supplies to CNG stations are suspended for 3 to 4 days in a week, and one-day industrial closure is observed.
The recent fuel crisis in the country further compounded the gas shortage thus leading to extreme low pressure situation. Because of the desperately short fuel supply, the Company could not implement the usual load management. SSGC, however, took all possible measures to make certain that domestic and commercial customers get optimum gas pressure. However, due to the additional demand of the CNG and power sector, SSGC had to face increased shortfall, an abnormal situation that led to the gas utility requesting industrial estates including SITE industrial area to voluntarily reduce the gas consumption by 30%. However, despite the Company’s earnest request, the response of the industrial estates located in its franchise areas of Sindh and Balochistan, have not been encouraging at all. If the industries had cooperated with SSGC in this regard, the present situation would not have been so grave.
The overall shortfall has also not been helped by the fact that in the recent years, gas consumption has been growing at a fast pace in areas surrounding the SITE Industrial Area.
SSGC, meanwhile, remains committed towards ensuring optimum pressure to its customers. However, the Company expects cooperation from the industrial estates to help maintain reasonable pressure to keep the wheels of industrialization moving.
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