Dawn reported that the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited have filed petitions seeking an upward revision of gas price for January to June period 2010.

As per report, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority will hold a public hearing on the petitions in mid November.

The SNGPL has asked Ogra to increase the average prescribed price for the January to June of 2010 by PKR 79.65 per MMBTU nit to PKR 312.43 per MMBTU. It has projected a revenue shortfall of PKR 22.96 billion for the 2009 to 2010 financial year, mainly due to projected increase in the cost of gas during December 2009 to June 2010 period.

An SNGPL official claimed that the gas prices at a number of fields in the country were linked to oil price in international market and the current increasing trend was likely to have an impact on wellhead prices. Besides we have to pay in dollars to buy gas from a number of fields. He added that the falling value of rupee had increased the cost of gas.

The SNGPL said that the upward revision was needed to adjust the revenue shortfall. An official claimed that the monthly receivables of the SNGPL were PKR 17 billion and payables were PKR 19 billion.

The SSGC, in its petition has sought an upward revision by PKR 57.22 per MMBTU to PKR 288.85 per MMBTU for January to June 2010 period. It said that the increase was needed to cover the expected revenue shortfall of PKR 11.60 billion in the current financial year.

The SSGC claimed that the price increase was needed due to projected increase in the cost of gas. The company said that the cost of gas during January to June 2010 would be around PKR 262.16 per MMBTU, operating cost PKR 11.63 per MMBTU, depreciation cost PKR 7.79 per MMBTU and the shortfall of the previous fiscal year PKR 9.94 per MMBTU.

The report said that Ogra would hold the public hearing on SSGC’s petition on November 11th 2009 in Karachi and on SNGPL’s petition in Lahore on November 16th 2009.

(Sourced from Dawn.com)