Low gas pressure hits households in Karachi as cold weather intensifies

As the mercury dropped to single digit in the city for the first time this winter, low gas pressure in cooking stoves, running on natural gas supply from Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC), has affected a large number of households, compelling them to postpone breakfast preparation at homes for students, office workers, and others.

As the winter hit the city, people have begun lighting bonfires on street corners to keep themselves warm. Gatherings at steaming soup shops have also increased.

At the same time, warm clothing shops and stores experience a sudden rush of customers.

However, citizens experience a sudden fall in gas pressure with the start of the cold spell, a pattern that repeats every winter, piling miseries on people.

Chilly winds, gas shortage pile miseries on citizens; SSGC concedes ‘technical fault’ affecting supply

The SSGC acknowledges the problem, saying that the utility is short of30 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from one of their fields, which is causing low pressure in parts of the city.

Many residents have complained that the gas pressure has dropped sharply over the past three days, forcing them to turn to costly LPG cylinders as an alternative.

“I woke up to barely a whisper of gas in the morning,” grumbled a disgruntled resident of the Defence Housing Authority, adding that the pressure was so low that the tea wouldn’t even boil.

Sehrish Rehan, a resident of Saddar, said that the situation was alike in every winter and she had already bought an LPG cylinder to cope with the situation.

“Expecting normal gas supply during winters in Karachi is just living in fool’s paradise,” she quipped.

A SSGC spokeswoman told that the gas utility was presently dealing with a shortfall of roughly 30 mmcfd of natural gas from one of its production fields.

She said that the reduction stemmed from an unexpected ‘technical problem’ at that field, which had cut its output and left the utility with less gas than it needed to maintain normal distribution pressures.

The spokesperson said that because the overall supply was now tighter, some districts of the city were seeing lower-than standard pipeline pressure.

She said to manage the crunch, the government approved load management plan prioritized domestic use.

“Fertilizer plants have been shut off and weekly industrial closures are being enforced.”

The spokesperson said that the field issue was expected to be fixed by early next week, after which overall supply should improve.

The dip in pressure affected household cooking, heating, and the operation of appliances that rely on a steady gas flow.

She said that the SSGC was grappling with a severe gas shortfall as winter approaches.

“Over the past five years, supply has fallen 57 per cent from 1,156 mmcfd in201819 to 660 mmcfd this year, widening the demandsupply gap,” she added.

She said that in Balochistan, winter demand spiked from 6080 mmcfd to 170180 mmcfd and the gas utility was now delivering 180 mmcfd there to keep households alive in subzero temperatures.