Gas utilities to add pipelines

ISLAMABAD: The two state companies, Sui Northern Gas Company Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), under a strategy to reinforce and expand their transmission network would lay additional 13,599 kilometres during the next fiscal year.

The capacity of SNGPL and SSGC would be enhanced by laying additional 12,100km and 1,499km pipelines in their areas respectively by June 2020, an official at the Petroleum Division told APP.

The two utility companies would invest Rs7,161 million on transmission projects, Rs48,288 million on distribution projects, and Rs18,556 million on other schemes, bringing the total investment to around Rs74 billion.

The companies expect to supply gas to approximately 430,695 new consumers during the fiscal year 2019-20, the official said. Answering a question, he said, the companies had laid 69km transmission, 3,232km distribution and 1,366km services lines and connected 165 villages and towns with their network during July 2018 to February 2019. During eight months of the current financial year, the two utility companies provided 428,305 additional gas connections including 425,404 domestic, 2,770 commercial and 131 industrial across the country.

To another question, the official said, the companies had laid 328km gas transmission network, 8,861km distribution and 1,216km service lines and connected 231 villages/towns to the gas network during the last fiscal year.

Pakistan has an extensive gas network of over 12,971km transmission, 139,827km distribution, and 37,058 services gas pipelines to cater the requirement of more than 9.6 million consumers across the country.