KP chief minister seeks recovery of gas loss caused by security threat

Source Dawn

 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has expressed inability of people in his government to enter the Kohat-Gurgury region because of the security situation there and has demanded that the cost of a loss of 11 billion cubic feet of gas in the region be recovered from consumers in Punjab and peaceful areas in his province.Advocate Mirza Mahmud Ahmad, the counsel for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and a director of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, told Dawn on Monday that Mr Khattak had written to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority that it was difficult for his administration to do anything in the Kohat-Gurgury region.

A federal government official said that a chief minister was not authorised to write directly to Ogra, he could take up the matter only through the prime minister, the Ministry of Inter-provincial Coordination or the Council of Common Interests.

On the basis of the chief minister’s letter, Advocate Ahmad pleaded before a three-member panel of Ogra not to penalise gas companies for theft and gas losses.

Ogra Chairman Saeed Ahmad Khan presided over a meeting on a petition of the SNGPL for an increase of Rs35 billion in its final revenue requirement (FRR) for 2012-13 through a hike of Rs68.64 per unit in its prescribed prices.

He said when the KP government could not access the Kohat region and a major part of Balochistan was out of bound even for the army, it was illogical to expect employees of the gas companies to recover gas bills in such areas.

An Ogra official said the SNGPL counsel had argued that Ogra could not take such a decision without a public hearing even though the recovery was required under previous Ogra determinations cleared by the Lahore High Court and repeatedly stressed by the National Accountability Bureau.

Advocate Ahmad said the minimum monthly bill of a household was about Rs240 compared with Rs4,300 of those using kerosene and Rs4,700 for liquefied petroleum gas. The natural gas has become a fuel of the privileged class with 93pc consumers getting it at highly subsidised rate.

He said he did not support an increase in gas rates for poor lifeline households but for CNG and industries because the cost of alternative fuels used by them was at least four times higher than gas. Ogra reserved the determination for internal working, but analysts said that two members of the panel appeared inclined to accept gas companies’ demand for an increase in prescribed price for FRR.