By Adnan Rafique
ISLAMABAD, Aug 25 (APP):Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Tuesday issued its annual report ‘State of the Regulated Petroleum Industry 2018-19,’ projecting increase in gap between demand and supply of gas by 5,389 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) by 2029-30. “The demand supply gap during FY 2018-19 was 1,440 MMCFD, which is expected to rise to 3,684 MMCFD by FY 2024-25 and 5,389 MMCFD by FY 2029-30,†according to the report.
The authority said there was a significant rise in demand and consumption of gas by residential and domestic consumers due to price differential of other competing fuels like Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), firewood and coal. The gas utility companies during last five years had added around 0.3 million consumers to the gas network annually.
“Total gas consumption during current financial year was 3,969 MMCFD. Total supply of natural gas during the year was 4,319 MMCFD of which gas utility companies supplied 2,379 MMCFD, Independent Systems 1,040 MMCFD and 901 MMCFD of RLNG was imported.â€
The gas utility companies, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), had extended their transmission network by 81 kilometer (KM) and 24 KM respectively during FY 2018-19. Similarly, SNGPL extended its distribution network by 7,782 KM and SSGCL by 660 KM.
The SNGPL had connected 430,411 new consumers during FY 2018-19 reaching to 6.8 million total consumers on its network, while the SSGC provided 106,054 new connections, making a total of 3.0 million consumers on its network. Overall, there were 9.8 million natural gas consumers in the country by the end of FY 2018-19.
The main consumer of natural gas was power sector, consuming 38 percent, followed by domestic sector 22 percent, fertilizer 16 percent, general industry 9 percent and captive power 8 percent of the total gas consumed during the year.
Province-wise gas consumption showed that Punjab’s share was 51 percent, Sindh 38 percent, KP 9 percent and Balochistan 2 percent of total gas consumption during the year under review. As per the report, the consumption of petroleum products declined by 20.62 percent to 19.56 million tons during the year 2018-19 as compared to previous year’s 24.64 million tons.
The contraction in consumption was observed in all main sectors including power, which suffered huge decline of 56.72 percent to 2.76 million tons during FY 2018-19 as compared to 6.37 million tons in FY 2017-18, followed by industrial sector, which observed lower consumption by 30.16 percent and transport sector showed a fall of 6.01 percent.
The product-wise consumption of Petroleum Oil Lubricant (POL) products showed that Furnace Oil (FO) consumption decreased by 52.54 percent, High Speed Diesel (HSD) by 13.64 percent, Aviation Fuel by 12.25 percent and Kerosene Oil by 10.10 percent in FY 2018-19 as compared to the corresponding year.
Whereas, the consumption of Light Diesel Oil (LDO) increased by 19.98 percent and Motor Spirit (MS) by 2.33 percent during the period under review. The market share of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) remained at the top with 41.76 percent of the total energy supply. It was followed by Attock Petroleum Limited (APL) with 10.45 percent, Total Parco Pakistan Limited (TPPL) 10.13 percent and Hascol 10.07 percent. Refineries’ total production declined by 9.20 percent to 12.40 million tons during the year 2018-19 as compared to 13.64 million tons of the previous year.
The size of LPG market during the year 2018-19 was around 1,061,447 MT/Annum which was 17 percent lower as compared to the last year’s 1,280,550 MT/Annum. Major decline in LPG consumption was observed in industrial sector amounting to 25 percent, commercial 19 percent and domestic 10 percent as compared to last year.
The decline in import of LPG from 34 to 24 percent could be attributed to less consumption of LPG during the period under review. Refineries and gas fields’ production accounted for 76 percent of LPG consumption whereas the rest 24 percent was imported during 2018-19.
The share of gas producing fields in LPG supply had increased from 48 percent to 57 percent. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports stood 901 MMCFD during the FY 2018-19 as compared to 754 MMCFD in FY 2017-18. “Its share in overall natural gas supplies has increased from 24 percent to 27 percent.†During the year 2018-19, natural gas consumption in transport sector had declined from 193 MMCFD to 178 MMCFD.
