SSGC told to provide uninterrupted gas supply

Karachi: 'Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) provides nearly 800 mmcfd of gas to Karachi, making the city Pakistan's biggest load centre, greater than Lahore, Gujranwala and Faisalabad combined, and the figure is projected to increase to 1.2 bcf by 2010.'

This was stated by Azim Iqbal Siddiqui, Managing Director SSGC while giving a presentation to the members of the Senate Functional Committee for Less Developed Areas here at head office of the company on Friday. The Committee was led by Senator Mir Wali M. Badani, who was accompanied by the committee members Amjad Abbas and Hafiz Rasheed Ahmed.

Siddiqui was joined by members of his senior management including Captain Mohammad Arif (Retd), Senior General Manager (Customer Services) and Arbab Mohammad Hashim, Senior General Manager (Distribution). Siddiqui informed the senators that in order to ensure an efficient and uninterrupted supply of gas, SSGC was putting together a system by placing additional lines.

He pointed out that as part of the gas infrastructure and rehabilitation projects in Balochistan, a gas sales agreement (GSA) was signed with Mari Gas Company Limited (MGCL) in 2006 to receive 22 mmcfd of gas from Zarghun South Gas Field whereby SSGC will construct a 64 km, 12 dia pipeline from the field to Quetta pipeline transmission network.

He said that the proposed project would be completed by December 2008. He said that SSGC was laying down several other important pipelines including 18' dia, 18 Km Abegum-Mach loopline and 18' dia 53 km Dhadher to Abb-e-gum lines, all of which will collectively benefit the domestic customers in Balochistan.

The MD SSGC pointed out that in 2006-07, SSGC supplied gas to 210 towns and villages, of which 90 destinations were covered in Balochistan and 110 in Sindh which was a far cry from the situation that existed in 2000 when not a single town or villages in Balochistan had gas connection.

Siddiqui said that SSGC under its comprehensive 5-year plan has sharply increased its gas supply to neglected areas in the past which was a proof of its abiding commitment to the province. He said that in certain areas of Balochistan, SSGC has not been able to provide gas because the population was hugely dispersed. In such areas, the MD said that SSGC had proposed LPG air mix whereby LPG could be transported through a satellite system through bousers.

The senators appreciated SSGC's role the expansion of transmission and distribution network of gas in the neglected areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Senator Mir Wali M. Badani identified certain areas of Balochistan such as Noshki and Loralai where gas had not yet reached.

The MD assured them that as soon as SSGC received funds, it would go full-throttle into completing the projects in these deprived areas. Earlier, representatives of the Works and Services Department of the City District Government Karachi and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB) gave a presentation to the senators and the SSGC management about the schemes completed by senators and MNAs under the Tameer-e-Watan Programme 2004-07.-PR.