Dealing with power crisis: government to delay ATA of major gas fields for two months

The government has decided to delay Annual Turn-Around (ATA) of all the major gas fields for two months - June and July - to effectively deal with the power crisis and now these plants will go on ATA in August and September, it is learnt. According to sources at Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, the government has directed all the Exploration and Production (E&P) companies not to go for ATA in June and July, when power shortage is expected to reach its peak.
"If the gas fields are going of ATA in June and July, the gas shortage in the country would face a total gas shortage of over 600MMCFD in supply from a number of fields as a result of annual maintenance work. The exercise may result in the further curtailment of fuel supply to power plants, industrial units and compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations," a senior official at Petroleum Ministry told Business Recorder.
"This decision will help in enabling the country to minimise the power loadshedding in June and July especially during Ramadan...we''ve asked the E&P companies to go on ATAs in August and September, when hydel power generation will reach at its peak and the government will be in a apposition to afford closure of gas plants," the official added.
"Allowing the E&P companies to shut down their plants at this time means additional gas cut to the power, industrial and CNG sectors, but now during the next two months, the government will be in a position to supply gas to all the sectors as per current gas load-management plan," he added.
Some E&P prominently POLO, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, PEL, Oil and Gas Development Company and OMV have requested the Petroleum Ministry to allow them to go on annual maintenance work. At present, total production of gas in the country stands at 4.2 MMCFD, of which 633 MMCFD was expected to be taken off the system during field maintenance in June and July.
Officials reveal that the gap between supply and demand would have been started widening following the maintenance work of gas fields including Manzalai and Makori, operated by MOL and connected with SNGPL''s system. OMV''s Sawan and Tajjal fields and BHP''s Zamzama field were also scheduled to stop supply for annual turnaround in June. Estimates show that natural gas contributes around 48% to the primary energy mix. However, the country is experiencing a severe scarcity of gas because of persistent imbalance between demand and supply on the back of depleting gas reserves and a consistent rise in demand.