ISLAMABAD - The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) will approach Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) seeking approval for issuing of 0.5 million gas connection per year.

"OGRA will be requested to approve 0.5 million domestic gas connection per year as presently 0.3 million gas connections had been allowed" said official sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural.

To a question they said the SNGPL and SSGC were providing gas connections to domestic consumers on a prescribed application performa.

Answering a question, they claimed, the ministry had not installed even a single gas meter in violation of merit and rules, saying the gas companies only provided legal connections as per turn and merit criteria.

They said the present government was religiously following the policy of merit under which new gas connections for domestic consumers were being given without any discrimination.

As per the policy, they said, it took around six months to process an application for a domestic connection. Its urgent fee was Rs 25,000 and the meter was installed after a three-month period, they added.