LAHORE: Another man-made gas crisis will hit industry and transportation hard as poor supply management disrupted the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG), sources said on Friday.

The delay in the arrival of the LNG ship is attributed to poor management and governance of energy affairs. The successive failures in setting up new terminals and the increase in existing ones have made the supply-demand situation precarious insofar as even a delay of a few days in the importation of LNG has practically closed the large industrial and transport activities for several days throughout the country.

The latest disruption in gas supplies will be the fourth such suspension in the vital energy chain this year, thanks to the colossal failure of the country’s energy rollout. The first such shutdown of gas supply to industry and other sectors was blocked in January this year, followed by a similar crisis in June and September.

The two gas utilities — Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) announced the shutdown of gas supplies to the industrial and CNG sectors as of Saturday morning.

According to an SSGC announcement, the company has resorted to load management following a sudden shortage of regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) to ensure an unimpeded gas supply to domestic and commercial customers.

The supply of RLNG to SSGC has been affected due to the high tide making it difficult for the LNG transport vessel to arrive at the port of Karachi.

To ensure an uninterrupted supply of gas to the highest priority domestic and commercial customers, in line with the Pakistani government’s gas load management plan, SSGC is reducing the gas supply to CNG stations, especially those running on RLNG, as well. than captive industries (non-exporting), from 8 a.m. on October 8 to 8 a.m. on October 11 (Monday).

On the other hand, SNGPL, which depends on imported gas to meet its natural gas requirements of up to 60%, issued a notification on October 7, 2021, more explicitly stating that the regasification rates of Pakistan GasPort Consortium Limited (PGPC) or Terminal -2 were reduced due to the delay in the arrival of cargo from Pakistan LNG Ltd (PLL) on October 8. Due to the consequent decrease in regasing rates, the system pack is quickly depleted.

In order to manage gas loads, the company adds, all regions have been urged to ensure the suspension of gas / RLNG supplies to CNG, cement and general industry (non-exporting) as well as to captive electricity in the SNGPL franchise area (including Punjab & KPK) from 0000 hours on October 8, 2021 for the next 48 hours.

When the attention of Federal Energy Minister Hammad Azhar was diverted to another man-made gas crisis, he said there was a delay of about two days in the ship’s arrival. and that we expected a return to full throttle tomorrow or the day after.

When asked about inflexible gas import infrastructure that does not have the capacity to absorb shocks with cushions like a permanent land terminal and an additional import facility, the Minister replied: “Yes. We are working on storage to face such challenges ”.