ISLAMABAD  - Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) in its 11th Annual Report 2012-13 on country’s oil and gas sector has disclosed that precious gas worth Rs59 billion had been wasted on account of gas theft and loses during last five years.
Regulatory authority’s report has also highlighted the important and considerable efforts of OGRA to implement the government’s reform agenda in the oil and gas sectors. During the period under review, the authority has issued eighty-one wellhead gas price notifications for forty-four gas fields and twenty-three notifications of ex-depot sale price of petroleum products and also issued four notifications of prescribed prices for both the gas utilities SSGCL and SNGPL during FY 2012-13. Similarly, regulatory authority has issued 25 licence of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) auto refilling stations besides granting three licences to new oil marketing companies (OMCs) during the period under review (2012-13). 
The regulatory authority (Ogra) in its annual report has further made it crystal clear that Rs59billion worth heavy gas losses were registered on account of line losses and gas theft during the last five years. Both state-owned gas utilities SNGPL & SSGCL failed to meet the target already set for controlling burgeoning losses particularly on account of UfG (Unaccounted for Gas).
UFG means the difference between the total volume of gas purchased by the licencee during a financial year and volume of metered gas supplied to its consumers excluding metered gas used for licencee’s self consumption.
High UFG levels of both the gas utility companies have been a major area of concern for the simple reason that this is waste of gas, which is avoidable to a great extent. It is pertinent to mention that one per cent UFG of the two gas utilities at an average price of gas in FY 2012-13 translated to revenue loss of Rs 3.55 billion per year. This loss reflects gas companies’ performance and adds to the cost of gas for the consumers.
The authority set the target of 4.50 per cent for FY 2012-13 and FY 2013-14. UFG benchmarks have resulted in saving of Rs 59,093 million to the consumers during FY 2009-10 to FY 2013-14.
Giving details of the gas theft and losses, the report has also made it public that during last financial year, Rs16 billion and 58 crore worth heavy losses were registered on account of gas theft and line losses while above Rs116.5 billion losses would register during the on going fiscal year despite the fact that Ogra already approved Rs5 billion to stop the wastage of natural gas.
The report further revealed that the regulator has punished the gas firms with total Rs3 crore fine due to events of violations in the oil and gas sector of the country. Similarly, 566 show cause notices were issued to the gas companies over violations.