CNG stations to stop sale from Friday to Saturday midnight

January 26th, 2008 durrani · No Comments

Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar to be affected

CNG stations in Lahore will suspend their services from Friday midnight to Saturday midnight as part of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd’s load management programme.

The SNGPL had asked the CNG Association to stop the sale of CNG in Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar for 24 hours to ease the load on its distribution system due to large-scale consumption of gas by domestic consumers in the wake of an extreme cold wave.

The SNGPL and the CNG Association representatives met on Friday. The SNGPL officials requested the association to voluntarily suspend the sale of CNG for 24 hours though the association was not bound by any agreement to stop its services. The SNGPL has an agreement with industries, such as fertiliser and cement, that it may suspend gas supply from January to March if the pressure on its network increases.

CNG Stations Owners Association Vice Chairman Shujaa Anwer told The News that the association had voluntary decided to suspend the sale of CNG for the next 24 hours starting Friday midnight to Saturday midnight. He said the SNGPL had requested the association members that its distribution system might collapse due to overload. He said the company had requested the association to stop the sale of CNG from Friday afternoon but it was not possible to contact the owners of CNG stations on such a short notice.

He said that 232 CNG stations were operational in Lahore, around 50 in Islamabad and 200 in Peshawar. Almost 75 per cent CNG stations of Lahore will close down for 24 hours but stations in Islamabad would not suspend their services because the government does not want to close CNG stations in the capital city.

He said the company had told the association that CNG stations in Peshawar could operate normally if the load on its network eased after CNG stations in Lahore suspended their operations. He said around 150 CNG stations on the Lahore-Islamabad highways would not suspend services.

Sources told The News that the load on the SNGPL network in Lahore region was higher as compared to Peshawar and Islamabad regions. A large number of industries operated in the Lahore region.

Gas pressure was at its lowest in Township, Model Town, Gulberg and Multan Road areas as these were densely populated and congested and around 60 CNG stations were operating there. However, many of the stations in these areas had already stopped the sale of CNG due to low gas pressure, they added.