Pakistan-Gas crisis making everyday life of working people more difficult

 People facing problems to cook meals at home due to gas shortage 

The PTI government into its fourth year of rule has failed to solve the gas crisis during winter months. The government has failed to manage the gas supply in last three years. The mismanagement and delayed decisions to import cheap LNG for winter months continue to affect daily life in major industrial and commercial centers of the country.

 In the last three years, PTI government made promises to end gas crisis next winter. But every year winter brought even severe gas crisis.  This winter is no different. Pakistan needs to manage the gas supply because there is huge gap in the demand during winter and summer months.

It is a known fact that the demand and consumption of gas significantly increased in winter months of December to February. So it is important to manage this gap in summer months to buy LNG on time. Like the previous years, PTI government failed to arrange LNG for winter months on time. Now Pakistan is facing severe gas shortage.  

The people use gas for cooking food, warm the houses and to hot the water for showers and washing dishes. Majority of working class and poor families not only make breakfast in the morning but also cook meal for lunch to take away to offices, factories, colleges and schools.  

The people in Karachi, Lahore and other cities are facing gas shortage in the mornings and nights.  Some people are using LPG as an alternate to cook food and warm the water. But many poor people cannot afford expensive LPG.

The other alternate is wood but the prices of wood have gone up too. The urban working class and poor are facing lot of difficulties to continue their everyday life due to gas crisis. When gas is not available for cooking and to warm the water to showers in the morning, the daily life disrupts.

The situation in many areas of Lahore and Karachi is worse. People are forced to bring breakfast and even dinners from the restaurants. It is not affordable for poor working class families to buy cooked food for themselves from restaurants on regular basis.   

 The government has also announced to cut the gas supply to domestic industries. The government is providing gas only to fertiliser, power and export industries.

The total availability of gas from domestic resources stood at 3,300mmcfd while with the import of RLNG, there is another 1,000 mmcfd gas coming into the system. There is maximum gas supply available in the range of 4,300mmcfd against the average demand of 6,500 to 7,000 mmcfd. In the severe winter season, this demand goes up to 8,000 mmcfd.

The official sources said that there were several reasons for the looming gas crisis going to hit the country during this winter season as the local discoveries of gas had witnessed a dip, so the domestic gas reserves were depleting.

The local gas supply stood at 4,300mmcfd a few years back but now it had got depleted and stood at 3,300mmcfd gas. The import of RLNG also faced snags and Pakistan used to add 1,200 mmcfd gas through RLNG a few years ago but now it was going to add just 1,000 mmcfd gas.

Pakistan needs to discover new gas wells in the country to meet the increasing demand and also to import more LNG to address this crisis. Pakistan needs more LNG terminals to handle more LNG cargos in the winter season. Otherwise both industry and domestic consumers will continue to suffer during winter season.

                                                                     The Editor