24-hour CNG shutdown in Sindh

KARACHI: All the CNG stations in Sindh were shut for 24 hours due to extraordinarily low gas pressure situation that has badly affected overall gas supply, Geo News reported Friday.

A Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) release said Thursday that in the wake of low pressure, the company will shut down gas to the CNG stations in Karachi and interior Sindh for 24 hours from 9 am on Friday, December 16 till 9 am on Saturday, December 17, 2011.

The decision was made during the meeting of SSGC management with the representatives of CNG associations at the Company head office on December 15.

Chairing the meeting, Syed Hassan Nawab, DMD (Operations), SSGC said that since the line pack (the actual amount of gas in the distribution system) has fallen from 950 mmcfd to a historical low of 750 mmcfd, it has become essential to shutdown CNG stations to make enough gas available for domestic consumption.

Since the November 26 agreement brokered by Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain among the SSGC, the KESC, and the KCCI, the longest closure of CNG stations came for 43 hours when the CNG stations across the province remained shutdown from 11pm on November 29 till 6pm on December 1.

At that time, the original plan was to curtail gas supply to the CNG pumps for 48 hours, but the curtailment time was slashed by five hours on the insistence of CNG station owners' associations and other public quarters concerned.

Later, the CNG stations in Karachi and in the rest of Sindh were shut down for 18 hours from 11pm on December 8 till 5pm on December 9. On those two occasions of the CNG shutdowns, the commuters faced severe problems due to fewer buses plying the roads.

The taxi and rickshaw drivers demand exorbitant rates on such occasions.