KARACHI: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) here on Monday held a public hearing on a petition of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to further increase in gas prices to meet the Company’s revenue shortfall for the financial year 2024-25.
SSGC has filed a petition before OGRA on November 30, 2023 and amended petition on February 23, 2024 for Determination of its Estimated Revenue Requirement/prescribed price for FY2024-25. The Petitioner has projected average prescribed price Rs 1,740.80 per MMBTU for FY2024-25 in natural gas business.
The Revenue Requirement of the petitioner will enable it to meet cost of gas, operating cost and return on assets. The cost of gas is linked to the international prices of crude oil/fuel oil in accordance with the agreements between the Federal Government and the gas producers.
Besides above, the petitioner has projected RLNG cost of serve at Rs 39.56 per MMBTU for RLNG business.
The exclusive rights held by the petitioner in its franchise areas i.e. Sindh and Balochistan have expired as per the respective license, however the petitioner has projected Rs 1402 million for laying of 179km distribution mains to connect various new towns and villages.
The additional issues include whether projection in gas supplies volume from local gas fields is fair reasonable and any steps/measures taken by the petitioner to meet country’s increasing energy demand?
The question was asked for reasons and justification for projecting Transmission and Distribution costs including other charges at Rs 36.168 million for FY2024-25 and toexplain the steps taken by the Petitioner on cost curtailment in the light of Federal Government’s directions for austerity drive as well as decreasing indigenous gas supplies.
Another question was asked to give reason for not projecting “Pipeline Transportation Income” as part of Tariff calculation, despite the promulgation of TPA Rules, 2018 and also elaborate concrete efforts made by the company to attract private shipper to utilize the surplus/idle pipeline capacity, keeping in view the scarcity of the natural gas in the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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