Consumers to get only 8 hours of gas supply per day from December

Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: With the start of winter, gas shortage has become a major issue especially in the province of Punjab, as only eight hours of gas will be supplied to domestic consumers in 24 hours from next month.
As per the sources, Punjab will be the most affected by the gas shortage as Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited will not have the required amount of gas available for the province. The main reason for it is that the share of Punjab in gas production is less than other provinces of Sindh, Balochistan and KPK.
According to Article 158 of the Constitution, the first right to gas belongs to the province from where it originates. The situation may be better in other provinces, but in Punjab, gas will be supplied to domestic consumers on the set hours of the day.
Sources warned that the situation is looking relatively better this month, but it will start getting worse from December onwards.
Sui Northern’s network will face a shortfall of 300 mmcfd next month. Consequently, gas supply to domestic consumers, captive power plants and CNG sector will be curtailed. Furthermore, the CNG sector in Punjab is already facing difficulties since it switched to LNG, while at present LNG is also not available as Pakistan LNG Limited has not succeeded in its spot purchase.