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 - 22nd 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.

He said the Ministry of Energy, Petroleum Division, was taking all possible measures to implement directives of the Prime Minister to undertake public welfare initiatives in collaboration with all attached departments and companies.

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.

The official said Petroleum Division of Energy Ministry had resolved around 63,000 complaints, received through Pakistan Citizen Portal during the first year of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which were related to its attached departments and gas companies.

"The government is committed to ensuring transparency in all public sector departments and making them viable and service-oriented entities, which is reflective from the fact that it resolved around 63,000 complaints just in a single petroleum sector," he said.

Pakistan Citizen Portal has recently issued the list of top 10 officials who resolved maximum number of complaints registered with their organizations.

According to the list, the Managing Director SNGPL stood at top by resolving highest 74,294 complaints and Chief Executive Officer MEPCO was placed on second number position for addressing 33,588 complaints.

Other eight officials in descending order are Complaint Manager IESCO 23,571, Chief Executive Officer PESCO 22,389, Chief Executive Officer FESCO 18,514, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunciation Authority (PTA) 12,540, Chief Executive Officer GEPCO 11,599, Chief Executive Officer HESCO 10,945, Governor State Bank 10,369 and Chief Executive Officer SEPCO 9,182.

He also shared some details about performance of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) that provided around Rs107 million relief to consumers by addressing their complaints against two state companies, SNGPL and SSGC during the last fiscal year.

The official said the authority had received 7,082 complaints, out of which it decided 5,909 and granted gas connections to 635 complainants, providing millions of rupees' relief to consumers by removing their grievances.