Former managing director of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Dr. Faizullah Abbasi, has revealed the ‘real reasons’ why the country faces a gas shortage every winter.
In an analytical article he wrote for ‘The News,’ Dr. Abbasi mentioned the increase in demand as one of the primary reasons which the government has not taken into account. He also mentioned that gas distribution companies like SNGPL and SSGC have failed to control gas theft.
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He wrote, “Distribution network in towns and cities are profusely leaking,” claiming that there is a 10 percent annual growth in gas losses due to unaccounted gas theft.
He noted that in the given circumstances, adding more gas to the current distribution system will be like “throwing good money after bad money.”
“Injecting more natural gas in the system operating at high pressure is like pouring water in a profusely leaking bucket,” wrote the Vice-Chancellor of Dawood University.
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He also warned the gas companies against lowering the gas pressure at night and restoration in the wee hours as doing so may lead to ‘fatal accidents’ due to suffocation.
Proposed Solutions
Former SSGC MD penned down two ways to address the issue:
- Rehabilitation of current leaking distribution networks
- Supply of LPG instead of natural domestic gas to domestic and commercial users.
Note that the gas crisis across the country has made life difficult for commercial and residential users. Low pressure or complete absence of gas has made it difficult for them to cook food, let alone use geysers and room heaters.
You have to privatize the companies and deregulate prices. Then reform police to enforce the law and punish those responsible for stealing gas. Only after you do all this will things improve. The government cannot fix it by managing the gas companies itself. No one will invest as long as controlled prices are in effect.
You cannot De-Regulate the prices and then at the same time say that controlled prices should be in effect.
If u de-regulate and privatize the companies you are straight away asking for High Prices per MMBTU hence leading to inflation.
Solution 1 is so obvious that the management must be taken to task for not having initiated the blockage of leaks wherever detected.
Solution 2 is even more ludicrous. Beside residential and commercial consumers, who else remains to use the gas? Each client falls in either category or is there a third category eg defence user?