PakistanTimesNews The nation's system line pack produces 5.070 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), which places a significant burden on the state's gas transmission infrastructure.

This is mostly due to the increased usage of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, in the electrical and industrial sectors. Even after summer officially ends, sui gas providers continue to supply expensive RLNG to the domestic market in an attempt to relieve pressure on the line pack.

Reports Regarding Gas

Senior officials in the ministry of energy anticipate that this will lead to additional price rises for gas sold nationwide. The officials said, "The gas transmission system can burst at any time, exposing the nation to a gas and electricity crisis, if the gas volume increases beyond this limit." "The pipeline can hold up to 4,500 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd)."

During the Eid break, the line pack kept rising above the dead level, peaking at 5.003 bcfd in the last week of March 2024. A daily injection of 50–100 mmcfd of RLNG is being sent to the domestic sector in order to capitalize on the declining line pack pressure. The original plan was to divert 150–250 mmcfd for the residential area.

It is true that when pressures in the line pack exceed five bcfd, the system becomes fairly sensitive. The authorities claim that even though domestic gas demand has drastically decreased in Punjab and Sindh as summer approaches and gas is no longer needed for heating in the two aforementioned federating units, Sui Company finds it easier to transport RLNG to the domestic sector.

Gas Sui

Domestic users must therefore compensate for the RLNG diversion by paying a hefty surcharge. The government only needed to raise Rs701 billion in revenue for the current fiscal year, but in order to reach its income target of Rs902 billion in 2023–2024, it has already raised gas prices by up to 193%. Thus, customers will bear the estimated Rs232 billion in LNG diversion expenses.

Sui Northern's continuous diversion of RLNG to ease strain on line packs is opposed by officials in the petroleum division, yet Sui Company persists in doing so. RLNG is less expensive than gas, which many affluent household users purchase for Rs 4,200 per litre, even at Rs 3,700 per litre.

In addition, five nearby gas sources have a 150 mmcfd gas flow limit imposed by the government. To safeguard the gas transmission system, practically empty wells may be caused to sink and never recover again to their original natural gas flow level, notwithstanding the potential problems this could cause. Before these wells can begin producing water, the use of artificial lift techniques will result in enormous costs. Therefore, it is extremely dangerous to continue producing local gas at the existing rate when local gas resources start to yield less gas.