PESHAWAR: Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Monday rejected proposal of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) to raise gas tariffs for domestic consumers.
SNGPL had proposed a hike in prescribed prices of about 78 percent like Rs. 389 / MMBTU which will eventually increase the end consumer gas prices for fiscal year 2018-19.
During the hearing, the OGRA was of the view prices may be rather decreased following better planning, management and adopting best international practices.
KP government said the petition submitted by SNGPL was not drafted in light of Article 158 of the constitution which states that gas priority would be given to the province in which gas is producing to fulfill its requirements.
The representative from KP government stated that as per the petition, SNGPL has not planned any transmission network in KP for 2018-19.
Even the distribution network is planned for specific region and not throughout KP. Only 14 percent of the total gas connections are allocated to KP which is breach of Article 158, Supreme Court directives, Peshawar Court orders, Prime Minister’s directives and Federal Minister for Energy decisions.
He further stated that SNGPL has denied purchasing gas from Baratai Well which is a recent discovery by OGDCL and KPOGCL. 30 MMCFD of gas is capped at Baratai and the country is losing billions of rupees annually on account of Foreign Exchange in import of LNG and Royalty.
Chairperson OGRA, Uzma Adeel didn't let the representative of Government of KP to complete the presentation and ended the hearing on the note that OGRA has no mandate of implementing the constitutional provisions Article 158.
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