Gas crisis hits industries, people hard

All provinces of the country are facing an energy crisis amid harsh winter season that has led to a hike in the consumption of gas by consumers, forcing the government to curtail the gas supply to the industrial sector.

The domestic sector is however facing extremely low gas pressure or no gas at all in the tail-end areas for the last many days. According to residents, they have been facing extremely low gas pressure since the start of this month and were forced to use very expensive LPG for preparing food.

On the other hand, a number of industrial units in Punjab, mainly in Lahore and Faisalabad, remained closed due to the shortage of gas, while industries in Balochistan and Sindh weren’t faring any better amid gas outages.

Sindh is particularly hit hard by the gas crisis, facing a shortfall of up to 400MMCFD, compared to 200MMCFD in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In addition to a week-long closure of CNG stations — only to be opened for 12 hours on Sunday, small industries are facing problems.

To protest the government move, the small industries in Sindh have decided to go on protest, starting Monday. They resorted to decision in the light of a blame game between the Centre and Sindh government, which continue to shift the blame on each other for the shortage.

The SNGPL had on Dec 19 halted gas supply to the general industry — mainly manufacturing and CNG sectors — to meet the energy needs of domestic consumers in cold weather.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/12/29/gas-crisis-hits-industries-people-hard/