Gas supply will only be available for eight hours in winter, warns Caretaker Power Minister

Tough winter ahead for Pakistan as gas supply will only be available for eight hours!

Caretaker Power Minister Muhammad Ali on Wednesday said that gas will only be available for eight hours in the winter amid depleting natural gas reserves in the country.

“[Gas] load-shedding has been taking place for the last few years. The load shedding will occur this year as well because we don’t have enough gas to supply it for 24 hours,” the interim minister said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

The interim minister added that the load-shedding plan was being devised to ensure a gas supply for eight hours.

He said the natural gas reserves have further depleted by 18 % compared to the last year.

In the presser, Power Minister Ali also expressed hope that the issue of gas shortage for the industry in December will be resolved to a greater extent as two liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes have been finalized.

“We have only two LNG terminals and limited natural gas but today we have finalized two LNG cargoes for December, which would help address the gas supply issues in December for the industry. The gas supply was also being improved for the fertilizer sector, he added.

Speaking about the ongoing crackdown against power thieves, the minister said that an amount of Rs16 billion had been collected from electricity defaulters so far during the ongoing crackdown, which would further continue.

He added that it had been decided to change the board of directors (BoDs) of all the power distribution companies (DISCOs).