- PTI government finally wakes up on the issue
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has clarified that the recent summary forwarded by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) recommending a 214% gas price hike was merely a recommendation the federal government received from the regulator that the PM, being aware of the people’s troubles, would not enforce. That the previous two massive gas price hikes have come on the back of the same OGRA recommendations inspires little confidence in the government’s ability to control energy prices. The same can be said about gas supply which has been severely compromised since the temperature dropped. This is not a new phenomenon as winters bring with them an increased household usage of gas that even previous governments have had a problem dealing with who would also offer the same ‘assurances of uninterrupted gas supply’ as Dr Awan has, now that the situation has gotten worse. The total shortfall has reached the untenable level of 600 million metric cubic feet a day (MMCFD) that will have to be plugged by curtailing gas to sectors other than households. This would mean that industries already dealing with the higher cost of doing business will be forced to rely on alternative, more expensive, sources of energy. The CNG sector, that has been facing supply-side issues for months, will be further compromised. Had the PTI government foreseen these problems and made adequate arrangements to combat this crippling shortfall, perhaps some of the damage could have been mitigated.
If some attention was paid to the theft and leakages of gas or a better LNG import strategy, this crisis could have been managed. PTI has been in power in KP for the better part of six years, which is where half of the 400 million MMCFD gas produced in the province is stolen by those closest to the gas fields. This is to be expected when the owner of an IPP who is a significant defaulter of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) is Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Products. The government must revise its energy policy to provide much-needed relief to the people. Winters will only get worse in the years to come, so it would suit the government that propagates itself on being the party of ‘change’ to be better prepared and act pre-emptively in such sensitive matters.
