Gas will only be available for 8 hours in winter: power minister

Due to the nation’s declining natural gas reserves, interim power minister Muhammad Ali has stated that during the winter months, gas will only be accessible for eight hours.

Gas available for 8 hours in winter: “[Gas] loadshedding has been occurring for a while now. We don’t have enough gas to supply it for a whole day, thus load shedding will continue this year, the interim minister stated during a press briefing on Wednesday in Islamabad.

The minister stated that they are developing the loadshedding strategy to ensure an eight-hour supply of gas, similar to last year. He also mentioned that natural gas reserves have decreased by 18% since last year.

Power Minister Ali expressed hope that the issue of gas scarcity for the industry in December will be resolve to a larger extent, citing the finalization of two liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments.

The minister said that they were making all-out efforts to ensure that the household, industrial, and fertiliser sectors would have access to gas with minimal gas load management during the upcoming winter season, despite several obstacles.

“We only have two LNG terminals and a finite amount of natural gas, but today we finalised two LNG shipments for December, which will help the industry’s gas supply problems in December. He noted that efforts were being made to increase the fertiliser industry’s gas supply.

During the present crackdown on power thieves, authorities have collected Rs16 billion from electrical defaulters thus far, as announced by the minister. Further, He added that the campaign will continue.

He claimed that the board of directors of all power distribution firms (DISCOs) would be replace.

He also stated that the private sector would have a long-term concession to administer DISCOs.

“Government to Announce New Gas Tariff Pending Federal Cabinet Approval”

Earlier this week, The News reported that the Petroleum Division was finalizing a summary to increase the gas tariff, which it would present for approval at the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting.

According to top energy ministry officials who spoke to The News, upon approval by the federal cabinet, the government will announce the new petrol pricing not on July 1, 2023, but rather on the day the cabinet authorises the new tariff.

In order to guarantee a decrease in monthly flow to the circular debt in the gas sector of zero percent, the top officials of the Petroleum Division have so far planned not to spare even the protected residential consumers. The protected users who use petrol up to 0.25 HM3, 0.5 HM3, 0.6 HM3, and 0.9 HM3 and fall within the first four slabs may see a price increase from Rs300 to less than Rs500 per MMBtu.