ISLAMABAD -  Sui Northern Gas Company Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) are making concerted efforts to bring down the UFG (unaccounted for gas) losses to ensure smooth supply of natural gas to consumers, official sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resoruces said.

"Gas theft, law and order affected areas, minimum billing, leakages, measurement errors and shift of bulk sales to retail sector are among the major UFG contributing factors," they told APP. The government took drastic measures against gas theft and illegal connections across the country which was helping to bring down down the UFG losses gradually, they added.

In line with the international practices, the UFG was calculated with the difference between the metered gas volume injected into the transmission and distribution network - Point of Dispatch (POD) and the metered gas delivered to the end consumers at Consumer Meter Station (CMS) during a financial year.

The sources said the gas companies had detected around 133,106 gas theft cases in their respective operational areas during the last three years. From July 2013 to August 2016, the SNGPL identified 130,516 theft cases, involving 18,031 mmcf (million cubic feet) gas and Rs10,496 million in stolen money.

While, it identified gas theft of 22,819 mmcf by non-consumers and 34,154 mmcf in law and order affected areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The sources informed that the SSGCL had detected 1,265 theft cases, registered 118 FIRs (first information reports), charged 713 mmcf gas and recovered Rs613 million from the industrial pilferers. Whereas, they said, the company identified 1,335 cases, registered 91 FIRs against the domestic gas pilferers, who stolen 6,689 mmcf gas amounting to Rs11,992 million.