ISLAMABAD: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has evolved an effective strategy of injecting additional re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) in its transmission network to meet the increased commodity demand during the upcoming peak winter season.
“This year, around 160MMCFD (million cubic feet per day) gas is expected to be short supplied from the fields and the SSGC will face [overall] shortage of around 250-300MMCFD gas this winter. This shortfall will be met by injecting RLNG in the system,” according to an official document available with APP.
During the last winter, SSGC was getting an average 1,145MMCFD gas supply from its 25 operational fields, which has reduced to 985MMCFD in 2020/21 due to depletion of the hydrocarbon deposits, curtailing the supply by 160MMCFD gas.
Keeping in view the increased gas demand, the company has started implementing its winter plan as 200MMCFD re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) had already been injected in the system.
Besides, it commenced work on laying a 17km pipeline after getting Right of Way (ROW) from the Sindh government, for which the federal government has been requesting for the last one-and-a-half years.
The 30-inch dia pipeline would be laid from the Custody Transfer Station (CTS) of RLNG at the Bin Qasim [Qasim Port Karachi] to Sales Meter Station Pakland where the SSGC transmission network is available for injecting the RLNG.
Currently, as many as two LNG terminals were operating in the country and injecting around 1200MMCFD gas in the national transmission system, which greatly helped bridge the gap between the gas demand and supply.
Pakistan’s indigenous gas production is around 3.7 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) against the demand of 6BCFD, while the existing reserves are depleting at the rate of 9.5 percentannually and unfortunately oil and gas exploration and production companies made no significant discovery since long.
Realising the present and future gas needs, the government is encouraging private sector players in the LNG business under its ease-of-doing-business plan.
