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Power plants seen as fastest growing market for natural gas

ASHRAF KHAN

KARACHI: Electricity plants will be the fastest growing market for natural gas over the next 10 years as the nation's independent power projects (IPPs) look to gas as the most economical fuels, experts said.

Natural gas will be a major beneficiary of the changing electric industry dynamics, they said. Consumption of gas for electricity generation is projected to increase about two-fold from the present 600 million cubic feet to over 1,500 million cubic feet per day, they said.

Various state-run plants to be privatised later on, and IPPs have been looking for gas quotas to fire their generators. Their immediate need is about 1,515 mmcfd, they said. This excludes the gas quantity the existing gas-fired power generators in public and private sectors have been availing of.

IPPs have a strong preference for natural gas because of their policy to avoid emissions problems and they can switch over to gas quickly.

The demand of power generating units for gas would increase in the wake of proposed environmental regulations, which are likely to tighten emission limits from electricity generators significantly in the coming years, they said.

They said that AES Lalpir and AES Pakegen, each carrying 337 mw capacity, cumulatively require over 100 mmcfd gas. Another IPP Rousch of 350 mw may need 40 mmcfd. Hubco of 1,292 mw, which is still being denied access to gas, would need 182 mmcfd at 60 percent plant factor, they said.

Several state-owned power plants including Jamshoro, Muzzafargarh, Multan, and Bin Qasim have been looking for additional quantity of gas.