Country moving towards massive gas crisis
Our Correspondent
Islamabad: Warning massive gas load shedding in the coming years, the federal government has decided to convince the provinces to surrender the first right to using gas. This will put the burden of expensive imported gas on the consumers using domestic gas in the weighted average.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair a gas conference here on Wednesday that would be attended by provinces and industry stakeholders to develop consensus on the issues.
Special Advisor to Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar has said that Article 158 of the constitution regarding gas distribution will become irrelevant in the coming years. Because the demand will substantially rise, and the gas-producing provinces will face a deficit, even meeting their own demand.
Article 158 of the constitution is not only a legal matter. The gas deficit has become a national issue. Special Advisor further said this while briefing the media along with Federal Minister for Energy Omer Ayub here.
Both the Energy Minister and SAPM were briefing media regarding the Seminar on Natural Gas Supply Chain in Pakistan.
Omer Ayub said that in the seminar, they would discuss gas pricing with provinces. He said that the gas demand is around 6.5 bcfd to 7 bcfd while the production is 3.5 bcfd.
Replying to a query, Ayub ruled out that the government was planning to amend Article 158 about gas distribution among the provinces. In the seminar, he said they want to collect the views of all the stakeholders. The recommendation will go to CCI for approval.
Article 158
Replying to the same question Nadeem Babar said that Article 158 would become irrelevant in the coming days as the gas-producing province will not be able to meet their own demand. Similarly, Sindh will face a gas deficit within one and a half years, KP two and a half years, and Balochistan three and a half years, he added.
However, he cautioned if proper planning is not done, then there will be a massive gas shortage. If we didn’t enhance the LNG infrastructure, we have to carry load management in the winter season.
He said that that the load management plan for the upcoming winter season has already been prepared.
On North-South Pipeline, SAPM said that as per the supreme court directives in the GIDC case, they have to start the project by February 13, 2021. Pakistan will increase its share substantially in the construction of the Pipeline.
The demand for natural gas grew substantially over the last decade, but the constrained supply-demand gap in 2013 estimated at 2,000 MMCFD. Eventually, the unconstrained gap exceeded 4,000 MMCFD.
This shortage necessitated gas load management across the country. However, gas consumers in all sectors in the four provinces experienced varied levels of gas load shedding. It could not provide natural gas to industry, fertilizer plants, power plants, and CNG for over 7 months in a year.
The gas-producing provinces witness the depletion of indigenous gas production in the coming years.
During the last decade, gas load management over the SSGCL and SNGPL network within the gas-producing provinces as the domestic gas depleted, the interpretation of Article 158 and implementation at practical grounds remained under debate at CCI level as well as in honorable courts.
During the last meeting of CCI held on 06.08.2020, the federal government shared the f unfolding circumstances related to the depletion of indigenous gas resources, increasing demand, gas tariff issues, and import of LNG.
Nadeem Babar said that government under the Petroleum Policy, 2012 has offered incentives for exploration of oil and gas in the country. The new bidding round for award of 20 oil and gas exploration blocks in Pakistan will attract local as well as foreign investments. This will also pave way for new oil and gas finds within the country.
In reply to a query that whether SAPM will renounce his American Nationality, Nadeem Babar replied that why “ I should abandon it.”
