Due to the country’s declining natural gas supplies, caretaker Energy and Power Minister Muhammad Ali has said that gas will only be accessible for eight hours during the winter months.
"Gas load-shedding has been occurring for a while now. We don't have enough gas to provide it for a whole day, so load shedding will continue this year, the minister stated during a press conference on Wednesday in Islamabad.
He said that the load-shedding strategy is being developed to guarantee a supply of gas for eight hours. The natural gas reserves have been reduced by 18 percent since last year, he added.
As two liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments have been finalized, Power Minister Ali also expressed hope that the issue of gas scarcity for the industry in December will be handled to a greater extent.
The minister stated that despite a number of obstacles, all-out efforts were being undertaken to guarantee that household, industrial, and fertilizer sectors would have access to gas with the least amount of gas load management throughout the next winter season.
"We only have two LNG terminals and a finite amount of natural gas, but today we finalized two LNG shipments for December, which will ease the industry's gas supply problems in December. He noted that efforts were being made to increase the fertilizer industry's gas supply.
The minister said that during the ongoing crackdown against power thieves, Rs16 billion has been collected from electrical defaulters thus far. He said that the campaign would continue.
He said it had been decided to change the board of directors (BoDs) of all the power distribution companies (DISCOs). The management of DISCOs would be handed over to the private sector on a long-term concession, he added.