Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) Removes 4,724 Illegal Connections, Lodges 96 FIRs Against Pilferers In KP

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), under its ongoing anti-gas theft drive, has so far removed around 4,724 illegal gas connections and lodged 96 First Information Reports (FIRs) against the pilferers in southern oil and gas producing districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Nov, 2019 ) :Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), under its ongoing anti-gas theft drive, has so far removed around 4,724 illegal gas connections and lodged 96 First Information Reports (FIRs) against the pilferers in southern oil and gas producing districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

"The company's field team, with the help of police and FC, is also carrying out operation in the districts and has removed as many as 4,724 illegal taps and lodged 96 FIRs against the commodity thieves," a senior official privy to petroleum sector development told APP.

In line with the government strategy to reduce line loses, he said the SNGPL was taking all possible measures to bring down the Unaccounted For Gas (UFG) ratio gradually in the coming years.

Under the drive, the official said inspection of all industrial, commercial and domestic consumers was being carried out regularly to prevent gas theft by taking prompt action against unauthorized connections and illegal networks.

Similarly, he said Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) was inducting law officers and lawyers for effective prosecution of the gas theft cases, establishing 'Gas Theft Intelligence Wing, ' carrying out industrial load survey in Karachi region, ensuring implementation on CNG stations' closure schedule and registering FIRs against the pilferers in regions including Quetta .

Answering a question, the official said the drive against gas pilferage had started yielding desired results as the two state companies, SSGC and SNGPL, managed to reduce Unaccounted For Gas (UFG) losses by around Rs 1.95 billion that stood Rs 50 billion annually.

The companies, he said, were carrying out anti-gas theft operation with zero tolerance across the country, which helped in bringing down the UFG ratio drastically and saving millions of rupees.

To another question, he said, during the tenure of previous government, the UFG losses registered one percent increase every year, which caused Rs 154 billion loss to both the companies and increase in the gas tariff.

He said the UFG losses ratio of SNGPL and SSGC had reached 11 and 13 percent due to wrong strategy of the previous government and non-professional approach to streamline the matters related to gas supply.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, the official said, had devised an effective strategy to bring down the UFG ratio, under which companies were removing service lines of those consumers whose gas connections were neither intact anymore nor enrolled in the monthly billing system due to certain reasons.

He said gas theft, law and order affected areas, minimum billing, leakages, measuring errors and shift of bulk sales to retail sector were among the major UFG contributing factors.

The UFG, the official said, being one of the most critical elements in the gas sector, played a vital role in reducing the profitability of the gas transmission and distribution companies.

He said the government had promulgated the Gas (Theft Control & Recovery) Ordinance, 2016 and involved law enforcement agencies to prevent gas theft.

The official said almost all Industrial customers had been 'Cyber Locked' by restricting unauthorized access to the Customer Meter Stations and allowing entry to authorized personnel only.

Besides, he said, Electronic Volume Correctors had been installed at almost all the industries for strict check and balance on gas consumption and abnormalities.