SSGC lays down dedicated gas pipelines in Karachi & Hub
Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has laid down dedicated gas supply pipelines in different areas to ensure required high pressure gas supply to industrial areas in Karachi and Hub in Balochistan and to reduce UFG.
Imran Maniar, Managing Director (MD) SSGC, while briefing reporters here on Wednesday said that the dedicated pipelines have been laid for supply of gas to industries in Korangi, Landhi, SITE and Super Highway industrial areas in Karachi as well as to Hub. He said the work of these pipelines has been completed and these lines would commission during the month, which would improve the gas supply to these industries at a high pressure.
After commissioning of these dedicated gas supply pipelines, would resolve the low gas pressure complaints of these areas, he said adding that a new dedicated pipeline would also be laid for the future industrial areas at Northern Bypass of Karachi.
Maniar said that apart from the dedicated pipelines for the industrial areas, SSGC has also undertaken the work for the improvement of gas supply network of the domestic consumers as the pipelines in the various parts of the city especially in the old areas have not been catering to the needs of domestic consumers in these areas. He said new gas supply pipelines have been laid down in DHA, Lyari, Korangi and some other areas for domestic consumers.
About the unaccounted for Gas (UFG), he said that SSGC has decreased the UFG substantially in the last few years. He said that total UFG of SSGC was eighteen percent in 2018, which came down to ten percent in FY24. He said that the real challenge of SSGC was to bring down UFG both in volume and percentage, which has been tackled. He said that real problem of UFG mainly lies in Balochistan as this has been reduced massively in Sindh and now closed to 7.6 percent benchmark of Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).
About the future gas needs, Maniar said that tight gas is the solution in view of depleting stocks of natural gas in the country and informed that federal government has approved a policy in this regard. He said that coal to gasification is another area, which is being looked into by the government.
About the future revenue requirements of the company, MD said that government has approved Rs.250 per MMBTU for the captive power plants, which would generate additional Rs.13-15 billion revenue for the utility.