The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Tuesday proposed reduction in gas prices of Sui Northern and Southern gas companies.
Ogra said it made this proposal after making an estimate of the revenue requirements for the financial year 2024-25.
In contrast to the gas corporations’ demand, the gas regulator proposed to trim down average gas price of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) by 10% and cut average gas price of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) by 4%.
Ogra suggested to bring down the price of SNGPL gas by Rs179.17 per metric million British thermal unit (mmbtu) to the tune of Rs1,635.90 mmbtu.
Whereas, it suggested to cut gas price of SSGC by Rs59.23 per mmbtu to bring the average gas price to Rs1,401.25 per mmbtu.
Ogra has sent its decision to the federal government for approval, the regulatory authority’s spokesperson said.
On the other hand, after the SSGC, SNGPL had also requested the Ogra to jack up the price of gas by 147% on March 18.
According to the report, the utility company had requested an increase of Rs2,646.18 per mmbtu in gas price and asked that the new average gas price be fixed at Rs4,446.89 per mmbtu.
Facing an estimated revenue shortfall of Rs189.18 billion, it had requested to implement the enhanced gas price from July 1.
It may be noted that the SSGC had also submitted a request to the regulator for further hike in gas price, seeking an increase of Rs274.40 per mmbtu.
On March 17, a month after the caretakers burdened the masses with gas price hike on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demand, the SSGC had requested the Ogra to further increase gas prices from July 2024.
The caretaker government had approved a 67% increase in the natural gas tariff with effect from February 1. The tariff was hiked to meet the deadline of the IMF for hiking the gas prices under structural benchmark criteria till February 15, 2024.
Citing an estimated Rs79.63 billion revenue shortfall, the SSGC had urged the Ogra to set average price of one mmbtu gas at Rs1740.80.
