It is 7 am. While most people are getting ready to start their day, SSGC’s Counter Gas Theft Control Operations team is already on the ground preparing for a raid on a facility involved in the theft of natural gas. Acting on a tip-off, the Operation Wing accompanied by SSGC Police reaches a locality on the outskirts of Karachi within no time. The miscreants known to have ‘contacts’ in high places have been stealing gas for a long time by puncturing the main supply line to run generators for supplying electricity to the neighbors. Expecting an aggressive reception, the team moves cautiously to conduct its operation. The miscreants, caught red-handed, raise a major hue and cry and threaten SSGC team with disastrous consequences. Nonetheless, the raiding party goes about its task of dismantling the illegal connection and lodging FIRs against the culprits so that they can be prosecuted as per law. This operation is one of the many operations, SSGC’s Counter Gas Theft Control team carries out on a regular basis to root out gas theft being committed across the Company’s franchise areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Stealing natural gas is not only a crime, but it also puts innocent lives at risk since only a Company employee can operate a gas line and not an amateur user or a plumber.
One major reason to control theft is financial. According to industry sources, gas theft contributes 50% to Unaccounted-for-Gas (UFG) or line losses which means every percentage increase in UFG leads to the regulator (OGRA) slashing more than Rs. 1.5 billion from the Company’s financial bottom line.
The menace
Gas thieves are a major source of nuisance for gas companies. There are a number of reasons for the rising incidence of gas theft in Sindh and Balochistan. Rapid urbanization is one. Since the past several decades, big cities like Karachi have witnessed an unplanned growth of kachi abadis or slum areas where gas is unavailable.
The settlers of these kachi abadis steal gas theft from a direct line in the surrounding areas through rubber pipes by bypassing the gas meter. Gas theft is, however, not just a common occurrence in slum areas but in other residential areas. Where the incidence of theft is high, raids are carried out by SSGC’s theft control teams
Factories also install suction boosters or compressors that not only affects the company’s gas distribution system but also its measuring devices. Besides being illegal, these locally manufactured compressors are deadly too. In many regions, gas theft is generally seen as a money-making business whereby residents steal gas for power generation through distribution lines and then sell them commercially. On the other hand, commercial units such as ice and rice milling factories and mawa bhattis (sweet manufacturing machines) steal gas directly to run their businesses.
Come winter season, in places like Balochistan, gas heaters run all day long for space heating purposes and a common man’s bill shoots up manifold which affects his ability to pay gas bills. That is when many consumers start tampering with gas meters on a mass scale or pilfering gas by puncturing the Company’s supply lines to meet their heating and cooking needs. Commercial and industrial customers too who have been stealing gas with impunity have not been spared.
Although in the past, legislation was promulgated to rein in gas theft, attempts by the gas utility companies in Pakistan to productively control gas theft did not make much headway. Then in 2016, the National Assembly of Pakistan passed the Gas (Theft and Recovery Act) that imposed heavy penalties in the form of prison terms and fines on offenders engaged in various types of gas theft.
The Act proved to be a much-needed shot in the arm for SSGC in the south and SNGPL in the North. In 2017, the SSGC’s Security Department was revamped as Security Services and Control Gas Theft Operations (SS & CGTO) Department and structured on more result-oriented and professional lines, with the establishment of gas theft intelligence, security, prosecution and operations wings. The SS and CGTO department is backed up by a dedicated SSGC Police Force and other law enforcement agencies such as Sindh Rangers and FIA for undertaking raids on domestic, commercial and industrial thefts. Two especially created SSGC Police Stations are working full time in Karachi and Quetta to keep a strict eye on the theft miscreants.
Operation Girift
Ever since its formation in July 2017, through an extremely aggressive approach, SS & CGTO Department has detected more than 25,000 gas theft cases in Sindh and Balochistan through a number of intelligence-based operations, under the umbrella of an aptly titled campaign called Operation Girift.
Operation Girift has proved to be a major deterrence against the scourge of gas theft. The Operation has not just been restricted to raids and FIRs. The gas utility’s war against gas theft has been boosted by the establishment of more than 38 gas utility courts with 27 in Sindh and 11 in Balochistan for taking punitive action against the offenders and serving them punishment commensurate with the type of theft committed. More than 450 miscreants have been prosecuted to date, nearly 400 cases are under trial and 1060 FIRs have so far been lodged in Sindh and Balochistan. SSGC raises claims against miscreants in order to make recoveries from them.
The Company is also running an aggressive campaign in conventional as well as social media to firmly warn the miscreants about severe penalties imposed on gas thieves. It also encourages people to report theft anonymously through its Whatsapp numbers and official social media pages.
The Gas Act not just gives the gas companies the mandate to nab the criminals but spurs a common citizen into playing a proactive role in prosecuting the wrongdoers. For instance, Section 25 of the Gas Act 2016 specifically states that if an individual reports a theft to the Company, as per law, the person will be eligible for 5% of any recovered amount.
Zero tolerance:
This zero-tolerance demonstrated by gas companies including SSGC in curbing gas theft seems to be working. The SSGC management considers this to be major progress yet admits that much needs to be done to put a stranglehold on gas theft for which it is constantly strategizing.
SSGC has no choice but to stay grounded in its war against gas theft. The Company’s fortunes depend heavily on its ability in containing gas theft. In a country where gas worth more than Rs. 40 billion is stolen every year, SSGC’s achievements in countering this menace may be a tip of the iceberg but a positive step forward. Let’s hope it can keep the momentum going.
The Author is A/DGM-Corporate Communication Department