ISLAMABAD: The Petroleum Division has submitted with the Federal Cabinet a three-pronged strategy to address the issue of approximately Rs50 billion worth annual gas losses, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources privy to the development informed on Saturday that the Petroleum Division has formulated and submitted a gas control strategy with the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) for approval.
They said the government has been taking concrete measures to root out the issues pertaining unaccounted for gas (UfG), including losses, theft, wastages etc., adding that the strategy would soon be tabled before the CCoE so as to permanently end the menace of gas losses.
Sources said that the government was all set to control the UfG issue, as a crackdown against gas theft was underway while measures to reduce the losses were being taken efficiently by the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) and the Sui Southern Gas Pipeline (SSGC).
As per the documents available with this scribe, the Petroleum Division’s three-pronged strategy included legislation, enforcement and public awareness/energy conservation.
The legislation would be chalked out to rationalise penal and bail aspects to cover domestic sector; enforcement would be initiated through provincial committees/energy departments/task forces, while whistle-blowing/incentives to informers would also be introduced to create awareness among the masses.
Earlier on Feb 6th, a CCoE meeting held under the chairmanship of the finance minister had taken up the matter of inflated bills to gas consumers during the month of December 2018.
During the course of the CCoE’s meeting, Petroleum Division updated the meeting on gas losses due to theft and other reasons. It was stated that the benchmark for UfG determined by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) was five per cent. However, gas losses were much higher than the benchmark.
It was pointed out that there were a lot of difficulties in controlling gas theft due to security and political reasons.
After getting a detailed briefing, the CCoE had directed the division to expedite its efforts to reduce gas losses and initiate a campaign in this regard in order to bring down the losses incurred by gas companies.
The CCoE had also directed the Petroleum Division to submit UfG reduction plan for the next three years, which should include concrete measures to achieve the target.
The CCoE further ordered the division to conduct the audit of SNGPL through external auditors with reference to slab wise gas consumption and gas charges from October to December 2018, including verification of the average billing of consumers to identify any unusual variations, and analysis whether there were any discrepancies in the consumption and billing data of the company (SNGPL).
CCoE had also asked the division to review/revisit gas slabs for domestic consumers and submit recommendations thereon to the CCoE for consideration within ten days.
