Gas shortages and additions

Low pressure and gas load shedding has been part of the winter season in Pakistan for years now. The complaints have been similar this year, if not the same. Recently, gas shortage aggravated in many areas of Punjab and the federal capital. While this has become the new normal for the country, it wasn’t taken well after the government repeatedly boasted about both power and gas surplus this year.

The reason however, behind the recent decline in gas supply had been a fault in the LNG terminal, which cut a supply of 600mmcfd to the national grid. The new RLNG terminal at Port Qasim had reportedly incurred a major technical fault of leakage in an insulation joint that connected the system to the pipeline infrastructure, which eventually forced Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) to divert the indigenous gas from the industry to the domestic household sector.

However, earlier this week, the gas supplies in the country shot up as the second RLNG terminal at Port Qasim finally became operational after a long period of delay. Increasing the supply of RLNG by 600mmcfd, the country now has started receiving about 1.2 bcfd of imported LNG. The government has claimed it to be a big achievement at a crucial time as many areas of Punjab and parts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are still experiencing low pressures and gas shortages.

The coming months will tell how tall government’s claims stand. However, one thing is worth noticing when it comes to increasing the resource base: the authorities have thus far focused on imported gas to bridge the shortfalls – whether that of gas or electricity. The present government’s interest in the E&P sector has been meagre. This is why there has been no auction of new blocks to the E&P companies by the current government until now; However, nearing the completion of its tenure, the federal government is now looking to go into bidding for new blocks to the oil and gas firms to hunt for new reserves.

The government’s enthusiasm for RLNG can also be seen from its upcoming plans. It claims that around 2450MW RNLG based power plants would be completed by February 2018, which includes Haveli Bahadur Shah Combined Cycle Power Plant and Balloki Combined Cycle Power Plant. It is also considering to authorise private sector to directly supply RLNG to the consumers and is ready to assist the Sindh government to establish its first RLNG based power plant of 1200MW. Furthermore, a 660MW RLNG based plant in KP might also get a nod soon.