Pakistan will push hard for quick implementation of a long-delayed trans-regional gas pipeline from Turkmenistan in a bid to ease its mounting energy crisis, Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar said on Tuesday. Senior officials of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India on Monday inked the framework of an agreement to construct the project with an estimated value of $3.3 billion.

The project would pump natural gas to Pakistan and India through the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taliban and its birthplace. More energy security could ease pressure on Pakistan’s government, which faces a range of challenges, from a home-grown Taliban insurgency to what will likely be years of economic pain after summer floods caused billions of dollars in damages.

But analysts said the agreement was still at a preliminary stage and that security challenges in Afghanistan and the tensions between India and Pakistan remained an obstacle. Proposals to build the pipeline have been on the table since the 1990s but war in Afghanistan delayed the project.

“We are following a very, very aggressive timeframe to conclude agreements on this project as early as possible,” Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar told Reuters by telephone on his way home from Turkmenistan, where the agreement was initialled on Monday. “But it’s too early to say that when these agreements will be completed and when the project will be implemented. Everything is subject to conclusion of agreements.”

The big question is can Afghanistan provide security for the pipeline? A Taliban insurgency is still raging there after nine years of war and more uncertainty is expected after US troops start withdrawing next summer. Any new tensions between arch-enemies Pakistan and India could also complicate efforts to get the project moving. Qamar said a final framework agreement is expected to be signed at a summit of the leaders of the four countries in December.

A pact covering the broad principles of sale and purchase of gas was also signed. Although some Pakistani energy officials hailed the tentative agreement, analysts say it may just be more wishful thinking. “It’s an agreement to reach another agreement without any concrete details and until then it cannot be termed as important,” said Khalid Iqbal Siddiqui, director of Pakistan’s Invest and Finance Securities Ltd. “This is not the first time it has happened.” The planned pipeline would have initial capacity for 33 billion cubic metres a year and would run for nearly 2,000 km (1,250 miles), including 735 km across Afghanistan and another 800 km through Pakistan. Natural gas to fill the pipeline could be drawn from the massive South Iolotan deposit, currently under development, and the existing Dovletabad field.

Pakistan also hopes a major gas pipeline project from Iran will help it tackle its energy problems. In March, the two sides signed a deal to build a much-delayed $7.6 billion pipeline pumping Iranian natural gas to Pakistan. That project may also be fraught with political uncertainties as the United States has been discouraging Pakistan from any deal with Tehran because of its suspected ambitions to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies it has such ambitions.

via Business Recroder

Division of natural resources has been a controversial issue for a long time in Pakistan. Recently, members of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms have agreed to a joint share of Federation and Provinces in the natural resources ie, lands, minerals and other things of value within the continental shelf or underlying the ocean within the territorial waters of Pakistan, according to sources.

Text of Article 172 (2) :

“(2) All lands, minerals and other things of value within the continental shelf or underlying the ocean within the territorial waters of Pakistan shall vest in the Federal Government.”

The sources said that after the addition of a new clause, any province will have joint territorial ownership of the ocean within 12 nautical miles limit of its jurisdiction with federation. The committee also decided the Federation could not install any hydel project for power generation without the consultation of the concerned province.

According to sources, Council of Common Interests (CCI) would take decisions on all matters relating to provincial autonomy in Federal Legislative List part-II in future. The members of the Committee strongly recommended strengthening of the CCI to resolve all the matters of Federal Legislative List part-II and disputes among the provinces and federation.

The sources said that Committee Chairman Mina Raza Rabbani is taking up first those matters on which the parties have fewer differences. Clauses that have attracted strong reservations of the provinces would be taken up by the committee later. The committee is discussing clause by clause Federal Legislative List for the last four days. The sources said that there are differences among the nationalist and mainstream political parties on Articles-21, 29, 32, 34,49 and 53 of Federal Legislative List Part-I.

The Water and Power Ministry has received an appalling 15.6 percent of total budgetary allocation for the first quarter of the current year, an amount that flagrantly disregards the critical contribution of this ministry to not only national output, but also to serious issues of households-related to water and power deficiency in the country.

The Finance Ministry provided Rs 2.8 billion during the first quarter (July-September) of 2009-10 financial year to the Water and Power Ministry as against the total committed quarterly allocation, amounting to Rs 17.85 billion. During three-day PSDP review meeting held recently, the Finance Ministry gave top priority to the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), Ports and Shipping, Communication, Population, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and Health Ministry.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources received 85 percent of the budgetary allocations, amounting to Rs 170 million as against the request of Rs 200 million in the first quarter.

The Finance Ministry gave second priority to Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), which received 75.1 percent of the committed funds, amounting to Rs 82.5 million as against the committed amount of Rs 109.8 million in the first quarter. The Ministry of Ports and Shipping received 72.2 percent fund releases, amounting to Rs 16 million as against the requirement of Rs 22 million in the first quarter.

Via Business Recorder

Green is in these days. The US cellular company Sprint has come up with an “Eco-friendly” phone which it thinks will help it with winning over those who favor green products. The phone is said to be made up of 80% recycled material and also offers quick access to eco-friendly applications. Sprint has been facing a decline in subscribers and is looking for ways to regain market share. See their marketing approach below. Will you go with a phone company because of their approach towards environment or for that matter, that company’s business practices? or do you care about their service and price above all?

Via: TelecomPk.Net

The increase in petrol and diesel rates by Rs. 4.80 and Rs. 4.59 per litre will push up commodity prices by 50 paisa to Rs2 per kg.

Traders said many transporters have already enhanced charges and this would make a negative impact on the already enhanced prices of various items. They said they cannot increase rates immediately as the city government has capped prices till Sept 10.

The price regulators are already struggling to implement official rates during Ramazan but efforts have so far been in vain as a majority of traders have openly been over-charging consumers.

Many retailers have displayed price lists but they completely ignore the official rates.

Via Dawn.com

Solar energy prices have been a big factor in adoption. Recent trends in price drops are encouraging but its not exactly cheap for developing countries yet.

One of the key takeaways from last week’s Intersolar North America conference in San Francisco was that solar panel makers are seeing a much needed uptick in demand as prices for their equipment continue to decline

With polysilicon prices dropping to $60-$80 from $80-$100 per kilogram, Barron’s predicts that prices will fall between 15 and 25 percent between 2009 and 2010. The same publication has also reserved its optimism when it comes to increased demand, arguing that liquidity and credit availability must rebound to a greater degree before demand can catch up with the glut of solar products on the market.

China recently passed its own economic stimulus legislation, earmarking upwards of $30 billion to foster renewable sources of energy, with solar prime among them. Australia has set aside $1.35 billion to finance solar projects, and South Korea has $2.3 billion for renewables. All of these plans could keep demand for solar materials and equipment on the upswing through the slow seasons and into next year.

Via GreenBeat

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I came across a really good article (from consulting firm McKinsey and company) about the global state of solar power and its economics. Leave a comment if you want the full paper.

Solar energy is becoming more economically attractive as technologies improve and the cost of electricity generated by fossil fuels rises. By 2020, hundreds of billions of dollars of investment capital will probably boost global solar-generating capacity 20 to 40 times higher than its current level.

As the new sector takes shape, producers of solar components must drive their costs down, utilities must place big bets despite enormous technological uncertainty, and regulators must phase out subsidies with care. The actions these players take will determine the solar sector’s scale, structure, and performance for years to come.

Reducing energy-related operating expenses tops the list of motivations for pursuing greener IT operations. See the survey result below from Forrester Research.

The post takes a look at the energy crisis in pakistan and the concerns raised by different sectors of the society and published in the media. I’ve listed number of articles from different news papers and a few sites etc.

In this 2007 article from NEWS, the situation is predicted to get even worse! The article is more of a criticism rather then a comprehensive problem solving note. It states the past unlawful decisions took by the government officials. Its just an article with educating people with the redefined and previously stated claims of the top officials. The figures are comprehensively given to exact measures but then again it adds more to the problem rather then the problem solving matter it self. The article also discusses the claims done by WAPDA and then again changing the strategies adding much more expense to the projects and lessening the chances of future stability.

Here’s another discussion from the defense forum site . The post mainly focuses on the oil, gas and water issues and explains it self how the growing needs in future are going to take the economic growth down. It encompasses on the political instability in the Baluchistan region resulting in the extreme shortage of gas. The industrial supply is mainly closed or very little of it is available so the industrial sector is facing a very hard time dealing with such problems. In the future the conditions are going to be worse as the percentage of consumption of oil, gas and water are to be doubled. 

In this news report, the government’s point of view is expressed. The minister of water and power Mr. Raja Parvez said on account of the extreme water and electricity crisis nationwide. He makes statements that ” keeping in view the situation, the government is bringing in rental power generation units and maximizing generation from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to augment the existing supply. A debt of Rs400b had created problems for the power generation sector out of which Rs260b are receivables of the eight power companies while Rs140b has to be paid to the oil companies. The power generation companies had no money to pay to the oil cos due to which the situation went from bad to worse.

He said a debt of Rs400b had created problems for the power generation sector out of which Rs260b are receivables of the eight power companies while Rs140b has to be paid to the oil companies. The power generation companies had no money to pay to the oil cos due to which the situation went from bad to worse, he added.

DAILY TIMES reports about help from Germany.  The article states how Germany is going to help Pakistan recover from the threats of worse economic and energy crisis. He also added that efforts are to be made to increase the two way trade. Speaking on the occasion many economist and strategists commented that Pakistan being an agricultural state should emphasis on the imports of fruits, vegetables and other agriculture based commodities to help increase the import revenue.The LCCI president said that the foreign investment in Pakistan by Germany, which was $11.2 million in 2001-02, had increased to $2 billion in the year 2007, showing a little improvement and needs to be increased.

There are not many sites dedicated to energy … here’s one but there is not much information here.