PESHAWAR: Supply to 35 CNG outlets cut on rotational basis
By Mohammad Ali Khan
PESHAWAR, Feb 1: The Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) has started a massive drive for disconnecting gas supply on rotational basis to CNG stations and disconnected gas supply to 35 outlets in the NWFP on Friday.
The CNG stations, mostly in Nowshera and Peshawar, will remain closed for three days as per the new disconnection policy chalked out by the SNGPL.
The areas, covered by the Peshawar-based regional office, have been divided into seven zones each having 35 CNG stations to materialise the disconnection campaign. The Peshawar region is supplying gas to consumers in Peshawar city, Kohat, Mardan, Charsadda, Swat and Swabi, where more than 250 gas stations are operating currently.
Ikhtiar Wali, provincial chairman of the All Pakistan CNG Association, told Dawn that the SNGPL had indicated that the loadshedding schedule will remain intact till Feb 21.
“The disconnection of CNG stations on the G.T. Road, Ring Road and Kohat Road had proved counterproductive,” he said.
Mr Wali said that the SNGPL was legally bound to ensure uninterrupted gas supply to CNG stations around the year, whereas its agreement with the industrial sector was only for nine months.
He said the company was currently restoring gas supply to the industrial sector at the cost of CNG stations that “is illegal for which the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had to intervene”.
The CNG sector consumes, he said, hardly six per cent of the total gas utility in the country, whereas consumption in the industrial sector was more than 18 per cent. Disconnection of gas to CNG stations would not bring any fruit, he remarked.
According to CNG station owners, the disconnection campaign had not only increased their financial liabilities but motorists were also facing inconvenience “as a motorist has to go and wait in a long queue from the overburdened gas stations”.
They said the average daily turnover of a CNG station was Rs100,000 that had reached to Rs300,000 currently. They said that gas outage and complaints of low pressure were still persisting in different parts of Peshawar, “which has proved that the SNGPL’s arrangements had not worked”.
SNGPL Regional General Manager Iqbal Hussain, when contacted, claimed that gas supplies to domestic consumers had been improved significantly in Peshawar due to gas disconnection to CNG stations.
He said the company would follow the schedule till the demand and supply gap was balanced.
He did not elaborate the exact quantum of gas shortage, however, he said that the situation would be normalised only when the weather condition was improved.
