The freezing cold weather pushed people indoors during the second half of December and very few dared to leave their houses without compulsion. The winter vacations at academic institutions were also announced around this time. This spared students of the ordeal of going out in such harsh conditions.
The harsh weather prevailed all over the country but the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) were the most affected. Both saw mercury falling drastically and the former remained mostly engulfed in thick layers of fog.
While people were wary of going out in the fog they were not comfortable inside either. The natural gas that they would consume to cook food and keep indoors warm became almost extinct. There was not enough gas to light heaters and run geysers. If gas was available to lucky ones, the pressure was so low that it could take ages to prepare a cup of tea. The situation persisted for a couple of weeks and things started improving but at a very slow pace.
The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), that supplies piped natural gas to industrial and domestic consumers in these provinces, has termed the ever-increasing demand-supply gap the major reason for this shortage. A similar situation also prevailed last year but this time a fault at Sui gas fields worsened the situation. A fire in a boiler and the 16-inch diameter pipeline at the Sui plant led to suspension of 240 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas to the system. This further reduced the supply which could not be revived over the week.
Though the intensity of the crisis has decreased a bit, the bad news is that the situation is going to persist for years to follow. The consumers, who would leave stove burners in the past just to save the "precious" match sticks, will have to live without it, pay high price for the commodity or revise their consumption habits drastically.
SNGPL Managing Director Arif Hameed explains the situation that haunts them. He says the demand for natural gas is increasing at a very fast pace and very little new gas is being inducted into the system. The pace of exploration, he says, is quite slow which has resulted in depletion of the existing reserves.
He says despite depleting reserves around 300,000 new gas connections were installed by SNGPL in 2014 and it is likely that a similar number will be installed in 2015. This would result in even higher demand for this commodity in times to come.
Arif says the gas availability in SNGPL system has hovered between 1,000 mmcfd and 1,500 mmcfd over the last few weeks whereas the demand has remained around 2,800 mmcfd. The illegal use of compressors by some consumers to increase gas pressure added to people’s difficulties, he adds.
On the future strategy of the company, he says they are hoping that the first shipment of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will arrive around March 2015 and inducted into the system. The company has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from local and international companies for laying 1,100 kilometers long gas pipeline project to carry from LNG terminal at Port Qasim.
A senior official in the Petroleum Ministry states that the LNG is the only available short-term solution to this problem. The trans-country pipeline projects, he says, are unlikely to materialise in the existing scenario. He says an LNG terminal has been constructed by Engro at Port Qasim with a capacity to offload 600 mmcfd gas. This terminal will be used by both the government and the private sector to import LNG, he adds.
The official hopes the situation will be better next year due to induction of LNG but gas will be available to consumers at higher rates. One major reason for this is that the rate of imported LPG is much higher than that of the locally produced natural gas. The government will have to work out prices accordingly and pass on some costs to the consumers as well. He says the pace of local gas exploration will have to be increased -- something which is not possible without attracting foreign investment in the sector.
The gravity of the situation can be realised in the light of figures quoted by the Ministry of Petroleum. As per ministry figures, domestic gas production will drop from the current 4.2 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) to 2.5 BCFD in 2019-20, unless exploration activities yield extraordinary results.
Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MPCL) Production Manager Saeed Ahmed Qureshi tells TNS that discovery of new gas reserves is a good development but it takes the exploration companies a lot of time to process this gas and introduce it into the distribution system. He says the piped gas supplied to domestic consumers has to be processed as per required specifications and the gas meant for industrial consumers cannot be diverted to the domestic sector just like that. So, he says, it is not possible to shift gas supplied to the industry as demanded by domestic consumers.
Citing an example, he says that gas discovered recently at a site in Punjab is highly toxic and it will have to be cleansed before diverting to domestic sector. The Hydron Sulphide (H2S) content is so high that human beings cannot breathe it more than once. It will have to be processed differently to cater to domestic and industrial needs, he adds.
An SNGPL official says on conditions of anonymity that Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) -- the company that operates Sui gas fields, shall be made accountable for failing to protect the plant and the pipeline. The gas supply, he says, is suspended or reduced due to PPL’s failure but SNGPL has to face the wrath of consumers. He says had the company doused the fire and made repairs in time the situation would have been far better.
All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Secretary Anis-ul-Haq dispels the impression that industry is consuming gas in large quantity. He tells TNS that they are getting supply of gas for only four hours in a day and electricity from the national grid for 16 hours. He says the cost benefit that they earlier had is no more there as gas is becoming expensive by the day and electricity cheaper.