LPG bottling, marketing: SSGC, SNGPL told to finalise plan in a month

The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Dr Asim Hussain, has directed Sui-Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) and Sui-Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to finalise LPG bottling and marketing within a month so that the government could cope with the looming natural gas shortage.
According to Ministry officials, at present the gap between supply and demand of natural gas has reached nearly one billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) mark. Resultantly, the management is forced to cut gas supply to Punjab's industrial sector for three-and-a-half-days, while CNG sectors in Punjab will face three days' gas load shedding. The minister gave the directive here on Friday while presiding a ministerial meeting regarding distribution of natural gas among CNG, industry, fertiliser and domestic sectors.
The objective of the LPG bottling and marketing is to facilitate domestic gas consumers by establishing LPG outlets within the jurisdiction of two public sector gas utilities in the wake of serious gas shortage. It was also decided that any sector defying the mutually agreed gas load management plan would be considered to be in violation of the Gas Theft Act 2011, and would be punished as per law.
The meeting was attended by representatives of APTMA, All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA), fertiliser industries, SSGC, SNGPL, Ministry of Industries, Ministry of Food Security, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), and senior officials of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources. It was decided after mutual agreement that SSGC would implement gas load management whereby CNG stations would not be supplied gas for one day and two nights a week, industry to remain closed on Sundays ie one day a week and Fauji Fertiliser would be supplied gas till December 31, 2011 to facilitate the supply of fertilisers to farmers.
CNG stations on SNGPL network would remain closed for three days except those in Islamabad region because of court orders. Gas supply to industrial sector would not be available for three and half days, while fertiliser industry would not be supplied any gas.
Ejaz Chaudhry, Secretary Petroleum, briefing the participants on current natural gas demand/supply situation and its distribution among various stakeholders said that the country at present is confronting serious gas crisis. According to Petroleum Ministry estimates, natural gas shortfall against committed supplies would be around 911 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in December and will increase to 1.1 mmcfd in January 2012 and 1.4 mmcfd in February, before easing down to 726 mmcfd in March.
According to official estimates, gas shortfalls are estimated to reach 2.5 BCFD in 2014-15, 3 BCFD in 2015-16 and 3.5 BCFD in 2016-17. The gap is estimated to peak at 5 BCFD by 2020-21, unless major discoveries and field developments are made in the coming years. The minister also appealed to the general public to adopt conservative measures for natural gas consumption during the crisis situation and help the government in identifying violators. He assured that the government is seriously trying to resolve the problems arising from gas shortage, but a solution would depend on co-operation of all the stakeholders.