Islamabad - A parliamentary committee on Tuesday took serious notice of the issuance of LPG licenses to the defaulters of SNGPL and SSGC by OGRA, and recommended amendment in the rules for the purpose.
The matter pertaining to the issuance of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) licences to defaulting CNG stations was discussed in a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources with Bilal Ahmed Virk in the chair.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) representative, while briefing the committee on the issue, said that “the rules are very clear. We cannot stop the issuance of licences to SNGPL or SSGC defaulters. And the government is required to make new guidelines and amend the rules.”
CNG station owners are switching from CNG to LPG. They are the defaulters of SSGC and SNGPL, but the current rules make no mention of them.
To stop these people from getting licences, the rules have to be amended. It was informed that OGRA had requested the government for amendment in the rules.
The committee asserted that defaulter of any company should not get a licence. It also recommended amending the Ogra rules to ensure clearance from SNGPL, SSGC, WAPDA and banks before issuing the licences.
Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, while briefing the committee, said that highest number of oil and gas discoveries were made in the ongoing month of June.
“Oil and gas exploration companies have made six discoveries, adding 50.1 cubic feet per day (mmcd) gas and 2359 barrels per day oil in the system,” he informed.
The minister said that out of six, four discoveries were made in Sindh and two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said that OGDCL had made two discoveries, MOL 2, PEL 1 and UEP 1.
“The energy firms have discovered 31.6 mmcfd gas and 339 barrels per day crude oil in Sindh. While in KP it has discovered 18.5 mmcfd gas and 2020 barrels oil,” Abassi elaborated.
The Managing Director (MD) SNGPL, Amjad Latif, told the committee that 100 million cubic feet of gas was depleting in the country per day, and there was no gas available even for the domestic consumers.
He said that purchasing cost of gas for domestic consumers stood at Rs510 per mmbtu but domestic consumers under first slab were receiving it at Rs 110 per mmbtu.
He said that 85 percent domestic consumers were paying less than 50 percent cost of gas.
“However, commercial and industrial consumers are switching to LNG and therefore, the burden of cross subsidy is being shouldered by SNGPL, which has hit the company revenues,” he said, and added, “Despite drop in gas production, 8000 kilometers long pipeline would be laid during the ongoing year.”.
The MD also said that SNGPL had a network of 0.3 million consumers, whereas 1.5 million applications for new connections were pending.
Committee Chairman Bilal Virk snubbed Director General Petroleum Concession (PC) Saeedullah Shah and accused him of not responding to the committee for the last two years.
“Your attitude is nonsense because you are not cooperating with the committee,” Virk remarked.
During the meeting, Member National Assembly from PML-N Mian Tariq Mahmood confronted SNGPL MD Amjad Latif and alleged that company had issued 100 gas meters in his constituency to please his political rival, Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, while the same was denied to him despite repeated requests.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Muhammad Arshad Khan Leghari, Rana Afzaal Hussain, Mian Tariq Mahmood, Rana Muhammad Ishaq Khan, Rasheed Ahmed Khan, Nawab Ali Wassan, Roshan Din Junejo, Nisar Khan Khattak and Abdul Waseem.
