Speaking at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said the SNGPL (Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited) was endeavouring to bridge the gas availability and consumption gap to mitigate sufferings of consumers in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and other areas of its jurisdiction.
The ongoing augmentation of the system would help plug the over and underground line losses, which according to him, have already been brought down significantly.
Arif Hameed said the SNGPL was also working on the LPG plant and this environment-friendly gas would be marketed by the company soon. Efforts for exploration of tight gas in Punjab were underway and availability of this gas would help overcome energy crisis, he said, asserting, the SNGPL was also launching 'solar geyser' programme to help decrease the dependence of heating equipments on natural gas, as the geysers would be provided to consumers on subsidized prices.
The prices of the equipment would be recovered from the consumers in two-year instalments, he maintained.
He said that Inter-State Gas System Company was exclusively working for execution of Pak-Iran Gas Pipelines Project, and for this, tenders have been floated.
While, the LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar expressed concerns over gas shortage, citing, since the start of winter season, the industry had been experiencing worst scenario under gas load-management. He underlined the need for exploring new gas reserves, as the existing ones were depleting.
He urged the SNGPL to be very careful, while expanding its system considering the increasing gap of gas supply and demand, moreover, the priorities of SNGPL needed to be reset particularly giving industry its due share to continue their production.
The LCCI President also called upon the SNGPL authorities to initiate a media campaign to educate public about gas conservation. Gas used in the steam units should be diverted to combined-cycle plants that operate at an efficiency of 48 percent as compared to almost 30 percent for the existing steam units.
LCCI Vice President Mian Abuzar Shad, former Presidents Mian Anjum Nisar, Mian Muzaffar Ali and a number of other industrialists also spoke on the occasion.