LAHORE – The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Wednesday told the Lahore High Court that it had withdrew a notification which had directed to disconnect gas supply to the CNG stations.
After OGRA’s reply, Justice Umar Ata Bandial dismissed 37 identical petitions of different CNG stations. On Wednesday, Ogra’s counsel Shaukat Umer Pirzada told the court that the notification directing to disconnect gas supply to the CNG stations, having nine months contract, had been withdrawn.
The owners of CNG stations had contended that at the time of obtaining connections for their stations, they had signed an agreement with the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) that gas supply would be disconnected in December, January and February.
However, they pleaded, the SNGPL wanted to disconnect supply from March to May on the basis of its load management policy. They submitted that the action was being taken on the basis of a notification issued by the SNGPL on March 2 which ordered to disconnect gas supply to the CNG stations having nine-month contract from March 3 till further orders.
The petitioners contended that as per load management policy, gas was being supplied to fertiliser companies which was a discriminatory act under the law as one connection could not be severed to facilitate other. According to an agreement, seasonal period was defined from December to February and not from March to May, but the SNGPL had changed it on its own in violation of the agreement, they submitted.
They had requested the court to set aside load management policy and change of seasonal period by the respondent. They also prayed to the court to restrain the SNGPL from disconnecting gas supply to their CNG stations.