‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Ke Sath’: Govt took no steps to deal with gas crisis

ISLAMABAD: The country is facing severe gas shortage currently, and the crisis is likely to worsen in the next month January, which will adversely affect all sectors including domestic, power and industrial.

This was stated by the host of Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ as well as the participants in the programme. Shahzeb Khanzada said the gas crisis had been getting worst, and in January it would intensify further. He said in his analysis that the government was well aware of the gas crisis during the winter, but the decisions were not taken timely, neither new LNG terminals were set up nor work on pipeline was launched on time. He said delay in opening tender caused the country on multiple fronts as the gas got expensive and could not adequately be provided to meet the needs of the month of January that may trigger certain gas crisis.

Currently, the domestic consumers have been facing serious gas shortage and low gas pressure issue, and similarly the industry has also been facing same problem that may hurt the country’s exports.

According to reporter Khalid Mustafa’s story in ‘The News’ on Monday, the people were forced to buy LPG to fulfil their domestic requirements, while at some places, wood was the alternative. It said the crisis would worsen during the next month and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has no option but to cut the gas supply completely to the power sector.

Even after the supply cut to the power sector, the government could save only 250 MMCFD and 250 MMCFD more gas would be required to fulfil the domestic demand. The sources said the export industry may bear a one-day gas loadshedding in a week during the month of January, as the gas crisis would be intensified between January 4 to 20, because the government decided not to buy gas due to high rate of $12 to $15 of the LNG.

The sources said the government has been trying to shift December’s LNG cargoes to January to minimise the gas crisis, while some sources said the government is also in touch with the Qatari government for LGN supply. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Petroleum claimed that no planned loadshedding was being done for domestic, commercial and industrial sectors, although there were some complaints regarding the gas pressure. During a survey conducted by Geo News, the consumers said there was no gas at all, while others said the gas pressure was equal to none and the people were forced to buy meals from hotels and utilising LPG cylinders to cook food at home.

Businessman Group Chairman Zubair Motiwala said that currently the local industry was facing severe gas shortage. He said the government ministers and advisors including Omar Ayub, Nadeem Babar, Hammad Azhar and Hafeez Sheikh had refused to provide gas to the industries, and asked them to buy LNG [liquefied natural gas] instead, which was quite injustice with them. He said Sindh had such a large gas reserves that we did not need getting the RLNG [regasified liquefied natural gas]. He said currently we have export orders; we want the industry to run and create employment opportunities.

Motiwala said official rate of gas is 786, but we, the industrialists, agreed to buy it for 930 with the condition that uninterrupted gas supply would be made to the industries and Sunday would not be a closed holiday for the sector. He said the federal ministers had agreed to all these conditions.

However, regretted Motiwala, the promise was not kept by the government. On Dec 15, gas supply remained suspended for five hours, on Dec 16, for eight hours, on Dec 18, for nine hours, and on Dec 19, gas supply remained suspended for 12 hours. He said during coronavirus pandemic, a visible increase had been witnessed in the textile sector exports. He said India was offering less rates than Pakistan, and with the end of corona, Pakistan’s exports would face a decrease again.

The Businessman Group chairman said if the country wanted to increase exports as well as create job opportunities, the textile sector should be provided uninterrupted gas supply with full pressure. If the gas supply would remain suspended for 12 to 14 hours daily, how the sector would fulfil it export commitments, asked Motiwala.

He said the country would be able to get long-term export orders if it remained successful in satisfying the buyers, who had come to Pakistan, leaving aside its competitors, India and Bangladesh.

Motiwala said there would be severe gas shortage in Pakistan in January and the industry would have to experience a serious crisis. He said the Sindh government was not allowing the federal government to lay down a gas pipeline. The industrialists helped the petroleum ministry get the provincial government permission for a 17-km gas pipeline. However, if no LNG cargo ships reached Pakistan in January, country’s credibility would suffer at the international level badly, added Motiwala.