Gas pressure for the domestic consumers will improve with additional supply of 100 mmcfd from Kunnar Pasaki Deep in the coming few days alongwith diversion of 160 mmcfd from the fertiliser sector next month, an official source said on Wednesday. The Federal Government has been attaching top priority to smooth supply of natural gas to domestic consumers and all possible steps were being taken to overcome low gas pressure issue, the source in the ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources told APP.
He said that the present democratic government has inherited the gas shortage from the previous regime but it has been making continuous efforts to overcome the gas shortage. For this very purpose the government has signed gas pipeline deal with Iran and work on Thar coal project which has been started.
An additional supply of 100 mmcfd will be linked to the national transmission network from Kunnar Pasaki Deep in coming few days, the source said adding that allocation of additional gas to the domestic sector will lessen their problems. Moreover, the gas supply to fertiliser sector will be cut in January when it goes on its annual turnaround. This will ensure that 160 mmcfd gas is available from the sector, the source added.
The source said that next year gas shortage will be less as compared to this year as 500 million cubic feet per day imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will enter the system from third quarter of 2012. The source said that gas situation in the country will be normalised by the end of 2013. He said that the country would have an additional 200 mmcfd gas in system soon out of which 100 mmcfd gas will come from Kunner-Pasakhi, 60 mmcfd from Sui gas and Qaderpur gas fields. Some gas discovery is also expected from small fields.
During January gas shortfall is expected to be 1,127 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), in February 1,046 and 762 mmcfd in March next year, the source added. He said it was unfortunate that the Thar coal reserves could not be tapped in the past ten years even though they are one of the largest in the world and would usher in an era of prosperity. He said that the credit for tapping these reserves also goes to the present democratic government.