SNGPL restores gas to Industrial Zone I

The Sui Northern Gas Pipe Lines (SNGPL) has decided to restore gas to Industrial Zone I, comprising Lahore, Sahiwal and Sheikhupura, from Saturday evening at 1800 hours while the industries in Zone II, comprising Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Islamabad and Gujranwala, region will be restored on Monday at 0600 hours.
The Managing Director of SNGPL, Arif Hammed announced this at a press conference here on Saturday. He said that in the meantime SNGPL was able to provide gas to two independent power plants (IPPs) while gas would be restored initially to two fertiliser plants and then subsequently to three fertiliser plants which was on the system of SNGPL during the period of August 29 to September 2. He said that Industrial Zone I consumes 200 mmcfd, which is 60 percent of the industrial sector load.
He said that on the directive of Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain, OGDC has agreed to reduce the annual turnaround (ATA) of Qadir Pur gas field to reduce it to 8 days, instead of 20 days, which was announced earlier. He said that from Saturday, after 5 days gas has started flowing from Qadir Pur and its present rate is 133 mmcfd. "Hopefully by Monday after 7 days, we expect total 400 mmcfd to be restored which has only been possible due to the personal efforts of the Minister of P&NR.
Arif said that CNG sector will observe three-day gas load management plan from Monday and the company will review the plan on Monday and if the gas is available on Monday then there might be a two-and-a-half-day gas holiday for CNG sector as they were following the two-and-a-half-day load management plan before Eid, while CNG sector was provided full gas supply during Eid.
The SNGPL MD said that a full-fledge campaign against defaulters and for recovery of outstanding dues would start in next week. He told the reporters that SNGPL officers have now been authorised as ''Ogra officers'', and they would directly bring the case before the judicial magistrates without the help of police.
He termed this a positive movement to check gas theft. Earlier, the company had announced gas curtailment of 20 days due to Annual Turn Around (ATA) of Qadir Pur field from August 29 to September 16, 2011, which was to result in shortfall of 400 mmcfd from August 29 to September 7, 2011, while there was a shortfall of 250 mmcfd from September 8 to September 17.