October 16, 2020: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), which is mainly responsible for supplying gas in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, has evolved an effective strategy of injecting additional RLNG in its transmission network to meet the increased commodity demand during the upcoming peak winter season.
“This year, around 160 MMCFD (Million Cubic Feet per Day) gas is expected to be short supplied from the fields and the SSGC will face [overall] shortage of around 250-300 MMCFD gas this winter. This shortfall will be met by injecting RLNG in the system,” according to an official document available with APP.
During the last winter, the SSGC was getting an average 1,145 MMCFD gas supply from its 25 operational fields, which has reduced to 985 MMCFD in 2020-21 due to depletion of the hydrocarbon deposits, curtailing the supply by 160 MMCFD gas.
Keeping in view the increased gas demand, the company has started implementing its winter plan as 200 MMCFD Regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) has already been injected in the system.
Besides, it commenced work on laying a 17-Kilometer pipeline after getting Right of Way (ROW) from the Sindh government, for which the federal government has been requesting for the last one-and-a-half years.
The 30-inch dia pipeline would be laid from the Custody Transfer Station (CTS) of RLNG at the Bin Qasim [Qasim Port Karachi] to Sales Meter Station Pakland where the SSGC transmission network is available for injecting the RLNG.
Currently, as many as two LNG terminals were operating in the country and injecting around 1200 MMCFD gas in the national transmission system, which greatly helped in bridging the gap between demand and supply of the gas.
Pakistan's indigenous gas production is around 3.7 Billion Cubic Feet per Day (BCFD) against the demand of 6 BCFD, while the existing reserves are depleting at the rate of 9.5 percent annually and unfortunately oil and gas Exploration & Production companies made no significant discovery since long.
Realizing the present and future needs of gas, the government is encouraging private sector players in the LNG business under its ease-of-doing-business plan.
The strategy has started yielding good results as two multinational companies are planning to start physical work on setting up their LNG terminals during next few months, while another local company is flexing muscles to start import of the commodity at the earliest.
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