More than 170 industrial units remained closed in Multan on Sunday as the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) suspended supply to industry and CNG stations in Punjab and also failed to pacify the domestic consumers who took to the streets in several cities of the province after having gone without gas for several days.
There was no improvement in gas supply to domestic consumers. They are forced to purchase "Roti" from the Tandoors against Rs5 Terming the move as "snatching of their livelihood", the industry and owners of CNG (compressed natural gas) stations refused to obey the orders.
Domestic consumers took out rallies in Multan, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Rahimyarkhan, Khanewal, Lodhran and Sahiwal.The company maintained that it ran the risk of "system collapse" if the industry and CNG stations don't shut down."The entire distribution system is getting emptied because of exceptionally prolonged cold weather," says Ali Hassan of the Gas Company. If the pipes got empty, as they are, compression (gas travel) in the pipelines would become impossible and the entire system would collapse, he added.
He said that there was no option but to cut the supply to industry and CNG stations off to save the system.
The CNG stations in Punjab consume about 200 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas and 50mmcf in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where gas supplies could not be stopped under Article 158 of the Constitution.Similarly, the industry within Punjab also consumes around 600mmcf. By shutting the CNG stations and the industry, the company would save around 800mmcf and that equals to total deficit of the company, he said and added: "Problem is that the industry and CNG station owners don't cooperate and the company continues suffering.
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