KARACHI: Nadeem Babar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Petroleum held wide ranging talks with the SSGC management on the menace of gas theft and the measures the Government of Pakistan and the gas utility are taking to control it.
The Special Assistant said that in April 2019, SSGC and SNGPL formulated a campaign to control gas theft with the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) and his meeting with the SSGC management at the Company Head Office was primarily to review the progress on anti-gas theft numbers and UFG-reduction front. Mr. Babar termed his review meeting with SSGC management as extremely productive.
The Special Assistant said that Prime Minister Imran Khan recently tweeted that since mid-April 2019, the campaign against gas theft had traced and disconnected over 18,000 illegal connections, with a monetary value of over Rs 2.3 billion.
Mr. Babar said that percentage-wise UFG will eventually show a marked decrease slowly yet surely due to the persistent efforts of the Government and the gas utilities in curbing gas theft, just like the success earned in the area of power theft.
The Special Assistant said that he has directed SSGC to soon publish details of large customers involved in gas theft on its web site so that further deterrence can be created.
In his remarks, Mohammad Wasim, Acting MD, SSGC said that the Government is standing shoulder to shoulder with SSGC in the joint mission to control gas theft and this campaign aimed at cracking down on gas theft miscreants will further intensify in the coming days and months.
Speaking on the subject of gas leakages, the Special Assistant reiterated that the leakage is due to old, worn out pipelines and the Government and SSGC in this regard are chalking out a plan to rehabilitate the dilapidated lines by setting targets and timelines.
Mr. Babar stressed that behind the scenes, the Government is working full throttle in controlling both gas theft and leakage and prolific results will soon start emerging.
Earlier, the SSGC management gave a well-rounded presentation on the overall Company operations, UFG numbers, meter plant operations and liquefied gases.