'Gas enough for 25 years'

LAHORE - SNGPL MD Rasheed Lone has said that country has over 33 trillion cubic feet gas reservoirs which are sufficient for another 25 years. New gas reservoirs have been discovered in Kohat, Sindh and sea while development work cannot be started in Balochistan where natural gas has recently been discovered. While talking to TheNation he further said that his department has imported laser leak detectors from America to expose gas stealers. He was of the view that gas theft has been increased manifold due to non-implementation of Gas Act as four years earlier gas was stolen at the tune of Rs 460 million but now it hits the mark of Rs 1.46 billion. He revealed that Gas Act is being tabled in National Assembly in its forthcoming session and hoped that with the implementation of this act, gas theft cases would reduce significantly. He said that earlier a fine of 365 days gas used bill imposed on gas stealer but after Gas Act approval, only gas connection would be cut off on first attempt while on the second attempt gas connection would be terminated once for all. He opined that UFG level should be according to the prevailing conditions of the country. In America, UFG ratio is 6 per cent while in Pakistan it is at 7.5 level. He said that SNGPL has so far reinstated 1,000 employees to whom government would give Rs 350 million annually in salaries. He said both SNGPL and SSGC companies are receiving 3,800 MCF gas on daily basis. Over 800 MCU gas is being supplied to fertilizer and energy sectors. He said currently country is facing 400MCF gas shortage. He vowed that he would visit various schools and colleges to create awareness amongst new generation of benefits of load management. He said he had also made a documentary film to motivate people to use natural gas in sensible manners.