Pakistan faces over 2 BCFD gap between production & demand of natural gas

Jun 11, 2020: The government on Thursday said there was a gap of over 2 Billion Cubic Feet per day gas between production and demand of the commodity to meet requirements of more than 9.6 million consumers across the country.

According the Economic Survey 2019-20 unveiled by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh here at a news conference, the country’s indigenous natural gas production was around 4 BCFD against an unconstrained demand of over 6 BCFD.

The ever-increasing demand of the commodity was being met through import of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Besides, extensive efforts were underway to accelerate oil and gas exploration activities in potential areas of the country to achieve self-sufficiency in the energy sector.

As per the survey report, Pakistan has an extensive gas network of over 12,971 kilometer transmission, 139,827 kilometer distribution and 37,058 kilomter services gas pipelines to provide the commodity to

more than 9.6 million consumers across the country.

“The government is pursuing its policies for enhancing indigenous gas production as well as imported gas to meet the increasing demand of energy in the country.”

At present, two LNG terminals with 1200 Million Cubic Feet per Day re-gasification capacity were operating in the country to mitigate gas demand-supply shortfall.

The total supply of LPG during July-March 2019-20 stood at 739,785 Metric Ton. Currently, there are 11 LPG producers and 200 LPG marketing companies operating in the country having more than 7,000 authorized LPG distributors.

Currently, the LPG supplies are being met through three sources including refineries, gas producing fields and imports.

APP