KARACHI: The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) announced on Tuesday that gas supply to nonexport industries had been stopped, followed by 50 per cent cut in supply to captive power plants, to ensure gas availability to residential customers.
Stakeholders had already been warned about this decision, the SSGC spokesman said.
He said the company was f acing a gas shortfall of 200-250mmcf d from various gas fields.
Amid looming gas crisis, the country`s overall gas production from various fields fell by 4.3 per cent to 3,377mmcfd during June 9-15 as compared to 3,530mmcfd from June 2-8.
However, there was a slight jump in gas production to 3,544mmcfd during May 25-June 1 from 3,495mmcfd during May 19-May 25.
Barring Qadirpur gas field from where gas production soared by 2.9pc to 193mmcfd from 188mmcfd, production from other fields remained low during June 9-15 as compared to June 2-8.
The head of Research at Arif Habib Limited, Tahir Abbas, said Mari gas field witnessed a decline of 6.8pc in gas production owing to shutdown of FFC-II. Gas production from Mari gas field plunged to 708mmcfd during June 9-15 from 759mmcfd in June 2-8.
Gas production from Kandhkot decreased by 29.9pc to 68mmcfd during June 9-15 from 97mmcfd during June 2-8 amid lower of f take from Guddu Thermal Power Station, he said.
A drop of 2.6pc was witnessed in Uch gas field`s production to 413mmcfd during June 9-15 from 424mmcfd, followed by four per cent fall in Sutiari Deep`s gas field to131mmcfd from137mmcfd while gas output from Sui fell by one per cent to 342mmcfd from 348mmcfd in the above mentioned week. Gas output from Rajani gas field fell by 2.5pc to 62mmcfd from 84mmcfd, while Bhit gas field`s output dropped by1.5pcto55mmcfd from 56mmcfd.
CNG stations all over Sindh have been closed from June 22 to 29 af ter stoppage in gas supply by the SSGC.
The SSGC said on Tuesday the current gas shortage situation in Sindh had arisen due to temporary shutdown of Kunnar-Pasakhi Deep (KPD) gas field, one of the largest suppliers of natural gas, which is undergoing annual maintenance work. Due to the closure of KPD field, SSGC is facing a shortage of 170mmcfd gas, a situation that is expected to last till the end of June when the field will resume its normal operations.
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