ISLAMABAD - Ministries of Petroleum, and Water and Power are likely to go into heated debate over the issue of gas load management in the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting scheduled for today (Tuesday). According to well-placed sources, the Ministry of Water and Power was opposing the proposal of Petroleum Ministry about putting the domestic consumers on top priority to get uninterrupted supply of gas during the peak winter season. The Water and Power Ministry officials were of the view that the cuts on the gas supply to the power sector would be disastrous in terms of further increasing electricity load shedding. The Water and Power Ministry had also argued that the interruptions in gas supply to the power sector could further complicate the already cumbersome issue of circular debt that has entangled a number of energy sector entities mostly in the public sector. The sources said that the power plants that ran on gas required diesel as the alternate fuel in case of gas shortage. Water and Power Development Authority had already made it clear that it would not be purchasing the electricity produced at a cost higher than that prescribed in the power purchase agreement. According to the sources, the Ministries of Finance, and Industries would support the Petroleum Ministry proposal of prioritising the gas load management during the peak winter season ahead. Petroleum Ministry estimates projected 2.7 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) as against the projected supply of 1.8 BCFD. This huge gap between the supply and demand was bound to lead massive outages of gas. The ECC would have to decide the allocation of the available gas to the priority sectors. Who would be ensured supply and who would suffer; this would be the key question during the ECC meeting today, the sources added. If the ECC with Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin in chair failed to resolve the issues between the two energy ministries, the matter would be referred to full cabinet meeting. According to the sources, the political authorities were also in favour of ensuring the gas supply continuity to the domestic sector and sharing the imminent outages burden between the power, industry, and CNG sectors.