ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) is said to have approved supply of electricity to textile sector at cents 7.5/kWh for two months from December 1, 2020 subject to closure of captive power plants, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
The decision was taken during discussion, on natural gas load management during 2020-21. In December 2020, total consumption will be 2,126 MMCFD whereas shortfall will be around 61 MMCFD; in January 2021, consumption will be 2,321 MMCFD and expected shortfall will be 250 MMCFD. The CNG sector and captive power plants will face complete closure during next two months.
Petroleum Division informed the CCoE that recently the ECC has approved recovery of RLNG diversion cost, which is now with OGRA for implementation, expecting that with the implementation of approved mechanism, the recovery of accumulated amount/diversion cost will commence.
According to the Petroleum Division, the position of demand and supply of gas/RLNG for the ensuing winter was presented to the CCoE in its meeting held on October 15, 2020 wherein it was apprised that SSGCL would be supplied additional RLNG to the tune of 150 to 200 MMCFD during the month of Dec-20 to Jan-21 to meet its shortfall of up to 250 MMCFD, while the balance shortfall would be mitigated through load management of gas supply to CNG and industry captive (non-export).
For SNGPL, it was apprised to the forum that shortfall of 60 MMCFD in Dec-20 and would be mitigated through gas curtailment of CNG and captive power plants (non-export) while for shortfall of 250 MMCFD in Jan ''21, the gas curtailment to domestic sector in the form of pressure profiling would be done. At the latter proposal of domestic gas pressure profiling, the CCoE directed not to curtail gas from domestic sector to meet the shortfall of industrial sector as the Federal Cabinet has already assigned priority to the supply of gas to domestic sector and that the explicit approval of Cabinet shall be sought for any change in this regard. Later, the option of gas curtailment (pressure profiling) of domestic sector was reviewed and, in a presentation, made to the Prime Minister on November 02, 2020, it was discussed that SNGPL''s shortfall of 250 MMCFD in Jan-21 would be mitigated by gas load management of CNG, Industry and its captive power plants (non-export), and other captive power plants (export) in the last resort.
Meanwhile, following has been undertaken at the end of Petroleum Division for managing gas/RLNG supplies in the system of both the gas utilities: (i) arrangement of additional LNG cargoes for the month of January, 2021 at both the terminals so that both can operate at optimum capacity, ie, terminal-1 = average regas 650+ and terminal-2 Average regas 690; (ii) retrieval of natural gas from the shut-in wells by work-over/overhauling and allocation of volumes by the end of December, 2020 which includes up to 90 MMCFD for SSGCL and 16 MMCFD for SNGPL respectively; (iii) arrangement of additional gas from MPCL for injection into SNGPL system on ''as and available basis, ie, up to 15 MMCFD (phase-I) in December, 2020 and up to 50 MMCFD (phase-II) by early January, 2021 subject to installation of compression facility by MPCL.
With this background the fact is that ECC in its decision of January 29, 2013 has already authorised both the gas companies to manage their load on their own.
Petroleum Division submitted the following proposals for consideration of the CCoE; (i) in order to meet the demand of high priority sector M/s SSGCL and SNGPL would curtail gas supplies to CNG, general industry (non-export), captive power plants (non-export) and captive power plants (export) which are connected to power grid and can meet the requirement of their power generation; (ii) Power Division would explore further reduction in RLNG off-take during Dec-20 and Jan 21 and which would not attract penalties/Liquidated Damages (LDS) at non-supply of RLNG by SNGPL; (iii) efforts would be made at the end of SSGCL for transportation of additional gas volumes to SNGPL, if available and; (iv) MPCL may be allowed to supply unutilized gas volumes of thermal power stations Guddu (TPSG) to M/s SNGPL purely on as and available basis by utilizing available pipeline capacity of M/s Pakarab fertilizer''s pipeline interconnected with MPCL and SNGPL network. Ogra would be required to expeditiously clear the regulatory approvals, if required for this transaction to bring the gas in SNGPL''s system by January, 2021.
Source: Business Recorder, Pakistan Saturday, 28 November 2020