Tawanai

According to the agreement, a company called ” Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company” will be incorporated with initial sufficient capital to complete the detailed feasibility study for Thar coal power project in Sindh. The project feasibility will be completed in 18 months.

Sindh government and Engro Power Generation Limited on Tuesday signed an agreement for mining and generating 600-1000 megawatts power from Thar Coal fields on public-private-partnership basis. The agreement was signed by Aijaz Ali Khan, Secretary Mines and Mineral Development on behalf of Sindh Government and Asad Umer, CEO Engro Ltd and Khalid Mansoor, CEO Engro Power Generation.

Under the agreement Sindh Government will make 40 percent and Engro will make 60 percent investment. The project envisages 600 to 1000 MW electricity and 2 percent of the profit would be spent on the welfare of local population.

Via Business Recorder.

Investment, Pakistan, power coal

Abu Dhabi fund International Petroleum Investment Co., or IPIC, will go ahead with plans to build a $5 billion refinery in Pakistan after overcoming differences with its joint-venture partner, Pak-Arab Refinery Co., a person familiar with the matter said.

“The issues are resolved and the project is being reactivated,” the person, who declined to be named, told Zawya Dow Jones.

IPIC, which manages energy investments in excess of $14 billion for the Abu Dhabi government, is now preparing to award the project management contract, or PMC, on the refinery, the person said.

In January, IPIC’s chief executive Khadem Al Qubaisi said plans for the refinery were delayed as the company was “facing some problems and issues in Pakistan.” He didn’t elaborate at the time. The global economic downturn was one factor contributing to the delay, the person said.

IPIC didn’t respond to questions about the project emailed by Zawya Dow Jones Tuesday.

IPIC’s board in 2008 approved building the 250,000-barrel-a-day Khalifa Coastal Refinery, or KRC, project in Baluchistan with Parco to help the country meet rising domestic demand for refined products.

IPIC will hold a 74% stake in the project, with Parco to hold the remainder. Parco is a 60:40 joint venture between Pakistan’s government and Abu Dhabi Petroleum Investment Holdings, which in turn is 75% owned by IPIC.

The award of the PMC contract will depend on a review of bidders’ revised price proposals, which should reflect today’s lower cost environment, the person said.

International consultancy firms including WorleyParsons Ltd. (WOR.AU), Shaw Group (SHAW) and Veco Engineering, submitted bids for the PMC contract last year but the award was put on hold amid the delays.

If revised prices meet IPIC’s expectations, an award may happen as early as October. Otherwise, another option would be to retender the contract to secure better prices, the person added.

IPIC also continues to work on plans to build a refinery in Morocco, the person said.

Consumers, Infrastructure, Investment

The Saudi ambassador said Saudi investors consider Pakistan as a potential investment destination with particular interest in agriculture and petroleum sectors.

Speaking on the occasion, Masud said many sectors of Pakistan’s economy like energy, oil and gas, infrastructure development, minerals, agriculture etc offer plenty of investment opportunities and investors of Saudi Arabia should explore these areas for enhancing their investment and business interests in Pakistan.

He said though Pak-Saudi annual bilateral trade has crossed $4 billion, but still it is much below the potential found in two countries.

He said Saudi investment in natural resources found in Balochistan, NWFP and Sindh etc will create beneficial results for both the countries.

Chief Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Islamabad Office Mian Akram Farid said enhanced direct interaction between businessmen of the two countries could be the best option for increasing bilateral trade and economic relations and urged that both countries should work for facilitating frequent exchange of business delegations to explore new areas of mutual cooperation.

Via Daily Times

Energy, Infrastructure, Investment

The carrots and sticks policy is in full swing. Now that Pakistan has earned some brownie points in the fight against terrorism, it might get rewarded in the area of energy. We’ll take whatever we can get!

The United States on Sunday assured Pakistan to extend full help and cooperation to resolve its energy crisis so that bilateral relations between the two countries could be further strengthened in all fields.

This was announced by Special Envoy of American President on Pakistan and Afghanistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke while addressing a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi here at the Foreign Office following bilateral talks.

Holbrooke said: “The US understands Pakistan’s energy requirements and needs, therefore, energy-related issues will be focused more in Pak-US relations in future,” adding Pak-US relations are moving towards economic ties.

Appreciating the success in the war against terror by Pakistani forces, Holbrooke said the US would extend full assistance in the rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons of Swat, Malakand and other areas where Pakistani forces have launched operation against the militants. He said the US has been impressed by the success of Pakistani forces in the operation against the militants.

He said: “The US is a close friend of democratic Pakistan and it has been proved by the President Obama’s administration in last six months with more interaction with the Pakistani government.”

Holbrooke said on the energy issue, he had been discussing it with the Congress and other officials and he will also visit Karachi to have further discussion with Pakistani officials to resolve it without any further delay for the benefit of the people of Pakistan.

Electricity, Infrastructure, Investment, Pakistan, power

A few weeks ago, ExxonMobil announced a commitment to invest $300 million over five to six years in Synthetic Genomics, which the famous scientist Craig Venter founded and now leads as CEO, and to spend an additional $300 million on a complementary internal algae program. Here’s more about this new investment.

The push is to take advantage of algae’s ability to efficiently transform sunlight into lipids that can be relatively easily converted into diesel, gasoline, and possibly even advanced hydrocarbons used to manufacture plastics, chemicals, and other products.

By the barrel, algae fuel provides three to four units of energy for every unit used to make it–a ratio that approaches petroleum’s 5-to-1 level of efficiency. The ratio for making ethanol from corn is a mere 1.2 to 1, according to some studies. Even making ethanol from cellulosic plants like switchgrass, researchers can achieve only a 2.5 to 1 ratio.

Venter’s company has been developing strains of bioengineered algae that ramp up the output of lipids and can in some cases produce hydrocarbons directly. However, Venter and Emil Jacobs, senior vice president for R&D at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, both emphasize that their companies will collaborate to investigate any viable option to push algae into the big time of energy sources.

Since research in algae fuels began in the 1970s at the Department of Energy–as part of President Jimmy Carter’s efforts to develop alternative fuels after the oil shocks of that era–several methods have emerged.

First is an open-pond system that grows algae out in the sun. Another is a closed, sunless system that feeds carbon from feed stock such as sugarcane to algae plants in fermentation tanks. A third type is a closed-system bioreactor that uses sunlight.

Energy, Investment, Oil algae

Daily Times reports that Ministry of Science and Technology(S & T) is to complete surveys for windmill farm sites. The S&T Ministry received Rs 4.1 billion in budget. Here are the details.

To attract public private investment in the power-producing sector, the government has asked the Ministry of Science and Technology (S&T) to complete the survey report of 24 sites in Northern Areas for the establishment of windmill farms.

The Ministry of S&T has to complete the survey report during the fiscal year 2009-10 so that work on these sites could be initiated soon, the Annual Plan 2009-10 revealed. The government is determined to overcome electricity shortfall by December 2009 so that economic activities might get momentum to optimal level.

The plan further revealed that growing level of investment in research and development was generally correlated with improved gross domestic product (GDP). For the fiscal year 2009-10, the government has allocated Rs 4.1 billion in public sector development programme for S&T sector projects. Out of which, an amount of Rs 3.3 billion had been earmarked for the Ministry of S&T and Rs 0.8 billion for the S&T projects of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET): The council would provide indigenous technological support to the local industry to develop and promote renewable energy products of international quality. PCRET would start production of solar cells and modules up to 80kw annual capacity.

Read more after the break about the different research organizations and their spending plans.

Read more…

Buildings, Cars, Clean Technology, Electricity, Energy, Investment, Water, Wind

We have been discussing the meetings regarding the Pak-Iran gas pipeline and now it has been reported that the government has made a decision and signed the accrod. Federal cabinet, without taking the matter to parliament or getting the consent of the government and people of Balochistan, agreed to allow the import of one billion cubic feet of gas from Iran at the rate of 80 per cent of the price of crude oil. However, Iran, desperate to export its gas and other energy resources to regional countries, held a detailed debate on the deal in its parliament. Dawn adds:

Officials from the newly formed Inter State Gas System (ISGS) signed the controversial gas sale-purchase agreement silently in Istanbul. According to the price accord, Pakistan will purchase Iranian gas on various prices; there isn’t a fixed rate, which clearly extends great leverage and benefit to Iran to procure a high price for its exported gas. Iran will sell its gas to Pakistan for $7 per MMBTU, if the Japanese Crude Cocktail (JCC) price is $50 per barrel, $9.4 per MMBTU and $13 per MMBTU if the JCC price touches $70 and $100 per barrel respectively. The price does not include infrastructure, security and other costs.

The imported gas price would be 10 to 20 times more costly than the gas being extracted from Balochistan and Sindh by the central government. Pakistan Petroleum Limited is currently paying only 63 cents per MMBTU for Balochistan’s high heating value gas. However, those 63 cents go straight to the kitty of the central government and Balochistan receives only 12.5 per cent royalty against the gas produced. The level of discrimination and exploitation of Baloch wealth can only be gauged by these figures — Balochistan produces $1.4bn worth of gas annually but receives only $116m in royalties.

There are concerns about the pricing and if Pakistan paid too much.

The price formula and the gas deal with Tehran indicate a great level of injustice as well as the inability of the political and official leadership of the country to negotiate a reasonable price formula with Iran; a country faced with immense global and economic pressures caused by international sanctions.

ISGS officials have said that this rather costly gas will be used for power generation. If this is true, then instead of placing thousands of kilometres of pipelines, the Pakistani establishment could save billions of dollars by simply importing cheap and surplus electricity from Iran which has been offered by the Iranian government. Pakistan could also encourage electricity-generating units to be installed within Balochistan near the border towns and supply the produced electricity through the existing power transmission system to the rest of the country.

There are several other unresolved issues which have been ignored and which will minimise the chances of success for the gas pipeline project. These include Balochistan’s unresolved political conflict in Pakistan and Iran, Tehran and Islamabad’s uneasy relations with the Baloch and Balochistan’s role in the overall gas pipeline project.

Via: Dawn

Gas, Infrastructure, Investment, Pakistan

As a part of its drive to secure foreign investments and overcome energy crisis, a two‑day conference on oil and gas exploration in Pakistan is being organized in London (of all the places) next month. The July 23‑24 conference will comprise a series of events and interactive sessions between the various stakeholders for a share in Pakistan’s natural resources. Pakistan Exploration Promotion Conference has been arranged by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources

Similar moots have also been planned during the month of July at Houston in USA and Calgary, Canada, the two important oil cities in the western hemisphere.

Officials at the Pakistan High Commission said these events will provide an excellent platform for the international companies  to be informed about the upstream oil and gas business in Pakistan and highlight potential investment opportunities in the country.

“The agenda of the events will be based around the recently approved Petroleum Policy 2009 which offers attractive incentives to potential foreign and local investors and companies,” Saira Najeeb Ahmed, Commercial Counsellor, told APP Thursday.

The latest Basin Study of April 2009,confirms the rich oil and gas potential of the country where 934 million barrels of oil has been exploited against the potential of 3675 million barrels.

Similarly, the south Asian country has gas potential of 67 trillion cubic feet of which 54 tcf has been exploited so far.

The official noted that there are still abundant reserves in Pakistan that are yet to be explored and to ramp up production from existing wells and tap into the unexplored reserves, the Government has decided to take serious measures.

Furthermore, in light of the current energy crisis, the Government has introduced a flexible and attractive package for onshore and offshore petroleum exploration through the Petroleum Policy 2009.

In last five years, the Petroleum & Natural Resources Ministry has granted 88 licenses to various Exploration and Production (E&P) companies including 16 international groups such as BP of UK, Eni of Italy, MOL of Hungary, OMV of Austria, BHP of Australia, NIKO Resources of Canada, amongst many others.  The E&P industry has also committed an investment of US $ 486 Million US$ in the oil & gas sector.

Via: APP

Energy, Gas, Investment, Oil, Pakistan

The continuing economic recession in the US and overall around the globe has impacted a number of large solar and biofuels projects. However venture capitalists are increasingly interested in smaller ventures and most of the investments are in this area. There are investors around the world are interested in ventures which require little in the way of expensive equipment and facilities, or those that have managed to attract foreign investment. Those were some of the conclusions of clean-tech investors who gathered at this week’s GoingGreen East conference in Boston.

As the credit markets have tightened, many capital-intensive projects have stalled. For example, OptiSolar, a company based in Hayward, CA, has sold planned solar-farm projects because it couldn’t raise money to expand manufacturing. Corn-ethanol plants are being shut down and some sold in bankruptcy proceedings for a fraction of their value. Meanwhile, some next-generation biofuels companies, such as Mascoma, based in Boston, have put plans for new plants on hold.

Projects requiring hundreds of millions of dollars have fallen from favor, says Jim Matheson, a general partner at Flagship Ventures. Don Wood, managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, says that his firm is turning to businesses that require smaller plants, such as those that desalinate water and cost only $10 million.

Perhaps the biggest winners will be companies with technologies to improve energy efficiency. Wood says that in the coming years, “efficiency is where you’ll get the highest marginal return on investment,” in large part because costs are low. Some such ventures take advantage of cheap sensors, communications hardware, and software packages to monitor and control energy use both in buildings and on the electricity grid, says Chuck McDermott, a general partner at Rockport Capital. He says that sensors are cheap enough now that they can be distributed throughout a building, even in the ductwork. A pair of sensors on each side of an air filter in a heating system can detect when the filter needs to be changed to save energy. Sensors and controls on appliances will allow homeowners and utilities to reduce energy use.

Via Technology Review.

Clean Technology, Energy, Green, Investment, Renewable Energy VC

This post has information about an event offered by OPEN Silicon Valley.

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Clean Technology, Energy, Green, Investment