Govt's gas load management plan to come into effect from Nov 1

• Government will provide gas to domestic customers only three times for cooking purposes.
• Country's gas deficit may touch over 1.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day in January 2023.
• Government has decided to reduce LNG gas supply to Power Division to 250mmcfd from 470mmcfd in November 2022. 

The government has decided to give the domestic sector top priority in gas supply during the winter season to ensure the provision of full-pressure gas for cooking three times a day, under its gas load management plan, The News reported.

The plan is said to come into force from November 1 till the end of February 2023.

While the priority is given to the domestic sector, the gas supply will be suspended for the non-export industry, ie the CNG sector and in case of the export sector, the current gas supply will be halved in winter.

More specifically, there would be a 40% reduction in the amount of RLNG now supplied to the power industry, a senior official from the Energy Ministry said.

Top officials of the Petroleum Division and gas companies on Wednesday put their heads to fine-tune the gas load management plan to be tabled before the prime minister for approval.

However, the government, even after the diversion of 250-350mmcfd RLNG to the domestic sector, will ensure gas to domestic customers only three times for cooking purposes as the piped gas deficit is huge.

“Both the gas utilities – Sui Northern and Sui Southern – will also import LPG of 20,000 metric tons on daily basis with the price of over Rs2,300 per cylinder apart from charging Rs7,000 one-time cost of the cylinder.

“The concerned officials have worked out in the Sui Northern’s system, an estimated gas deficit of 250mmcfd in November, 400mmcfd in December and 700-750mmcfd in January, and in the Sui Southern’s system 250mmcfd in November, 300mmcfd in December, 350mmcfd in January and 250mmcfd in February 2023.”

This means the country would be having a gas deficit that would touch over 1.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day in the peak winter month of January 2023. However, Sui Northern will have availability of RLNG 600mmcfd and local gas 750mmcfd in November, RLNG of 800mmcfd and 800 local gas in December, and RLNG of 800mmcfd and 800mmcfd local gas in January 2023, and the same gas availability in February 2023. Likewise, Sui Southern will have 75mmcfd RLNG and 875mmcfd local gas each in November, December, January, and February.

The government has decided to reduce the LNG gas supply to the Power Division to 250mmcfd from 470mmcfd in November 2022. The gas supply to the power sector may further plummet in January to 200mmcfd. However, in February the gas supply to the power sector may increase up to 350mmcfd. The government would increase electricity production based on coal by up to 4,000MW. The country would also continue to rely on nuclear power generation. The demand for electricity in the winter season oscillates between 9,000 MW and 12,000MW only.