Franchise areas: Gas cos asked to install town border stations to cut down UfG

ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division has directed both gas companies - Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to install TBS (Town border station) in their franchises/areas to bring down unaccounted-for gas (UfG) in accordance with international standards.

Installation of TBS is not part of gas companies’ estimated revenue requirements (ERRs) for current financial year and may submit in review petitions, sources said.

Sources further said that both gas companies failed to implement their three-year plan to reduce the UfG to 6.7 percent as per the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) limits.

The gas companies failed to achieve the UfG reduction targets set up for three years (fiscal years, 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22). The SNGPL has to bring down reduction by four per cent and SSGC by 9.55 per cent.

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However, the SNGPL reduced the UfG to eight per cent and SSGC UfG is still 13 per cent due to illegal gas connections in Karachi and gas thefts in Balochistan.

In 2017, the Ogra undertook a study through an independent consultant to determine UfG benchmarks that accounted for the system’s inherent gas loss, challenging local conditions and performance.

The board of directors (BoDs) of both gas companies would take the decisions on revenue requirements for installation of TBS at distribution network to assess the actual size of losses within one month. Than procure through bidding process for both companies. In this system, operators of TBS will be held responsible for UfG in respective areas through profit and loss statements released monthly.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022