The petroleum ministry has held the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) responsible for the recent fuel crisis in the country.
In a report submitted to the petroleum minister, the office of director-general for oil said that Ogra failed to perform its duty as a regulator as it did not take timely action to head off a crisis. Ogra’s ineffectiveness resulted in black marketing of petrol and diesel in many parts of the country.
Sources in the ministry said Ogra was supposed to take steps to ensure availability of petrol across the country not only by taking measures against hoarders and black marketers but also through timely imports to meet the shortage created by the shutdown of Parco due to floods.
Read more…
Government, OGRA, Oil, Pakistan, Petrol
oil, Pakistan, Petroleum, Shortage
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.
Read more…
Economics, Energy, Gas, Pakistan
Afghanistan, gas, Import, India, Pakistan, pipeline, transportation
The LPG Marketing companies, dealer and equipment manufactures/suppliers are striving hard to bring the autogas stations and provide alternative fuel for vehicles in the country. For the same, the LPG Association of Pakistan’s (LPGAP) proposed for allowing installation in resedential areas following the NFPA-58 regulations which the authority Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has put down. Business Recoder report gives the details.
According to documents available with Business Recorder, the Authority’s rationale is that in a country like Pakistan appropriate locations of LPG dispensing stations is all the more important due to high population densities, poor traffic conditions, dismal public awareness towards safety and weak emergency response at local level. Authority said that National Fire Protection Association (NFPA-58), an International Code and Standards Organisation, provided guidelines on safety at LPG dispensing stations which do not adequately cover the safety requirements for areas around dispensing stations.
Read more…
Auto-Gas, LPG, OGRA, Pakistan
Autogas, Fuel, LPG, LPGAP, NFPA-58, ogra, Vehicles
An interesting report from DAWN summaries the Asian Development Bank report which holds the Ministry of Water and Power and NEPRA (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) responsible for power crises the country faces.
The Asian Development Bank has held two major power sector stakeholders — the Ministry of Water and Power and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) — responsible for most of the ills Pakistan’s power sector is facing today, including loadshedding, system losses and high tariffs.
This puts a serious question mark on the performance of the two public sector institutions designed and set up to solve electricity problems and remove consumers’ sufferings. They have been blamed for stalling or delaying reforms launched by the government more than two decades ago.
Read more…
Consumers, Electricity, Energy, Government, Infrastructure, Pakistan
government, Ministry, nepra
The case of unsolved circular debts will lead to major oil crises says Parco and PSO. This is a long pending issue and government should now step up to play its role in resolving before it becomes the reason of further loss to the economy. The business recorder news item gives the details.
The country’s oil sector’s largest giants, Pak Arab Refinery Limited (Parco) and Pakistan State Oil (PSO), have warned the government of an imminent massive oil crisis due to the unresolved circular debt problem and have urged it to arrange funds for import of petroleum products, Business Recorder has learnt reliably.
Parco has urged the government to arrange funds via PSO to save it from default on account of Letter of Credits (L/Cs) for the import of crude oil. Parco revealed that its bank borrowing was rising due to non-payment of dues by PSO with Rs 145.4 billion receivables against different clients on Thursday morning.
Read more…
Oil, PSO, Pakistan, WAPDA
oil, Pakistan, PARCO, PSO
For the electricity traiffs the limit is beyond the skys. What new comes in is differentiated power tariff to be implemented from September 1. The Tribune gives the details:
The federal government has introduced differentiated tariffs for electricity consumers, to be implemented on bills sent after September 1.
Based on time-of-use metering, the move would translate into a reduction from 4 paisa to 48 paisa per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) for different consumer categories.
According to a notification, the current tariffs will be maintained for peak hours while the reduction will be applicable on off-peak hours for residential, commercial, industrial and bulk users.
The reductions in off-peak tariffs are as follows: 48 paisa per kWh for residential, 24 paisa per kWh for commercial, 10 paisa per kWh for B1 and 24 paisa per kWh for B2 industrial consumers. For bulk consumers, the reduction is four paisa per kWh and 14 paisa per kWh for C-1B and C-1C categories respectively. For street lighting, the reduction is 29 paisa per kWh.
Will this reduction matter much for the consumers?
Electricity, Energy, KESC, Pakistan, WAPDA
electricity, government, KESC, Pakistan, tariff, WAPDA
The recent floods have not only caused loss to human lives and infrastructure but the water lost was also worth to irrigate 40 million acre of land. Following excerpt gives the details:
Pakistan lost water worth Rs240 billion due to lack of dams and water reservoirs in the country.
Chairman Fauji Fertilizer Company talking to media men said a quantity of water needed for irrigating 40 million acres land has been wasted. He said Rs6 billion worth of water is required for irrigating 1 million acres land.
According to economic experts, due to absence of political harmony the country not only faced worst ever floods but also failed to store water worth Rs240 billion.
Environment, Infrastructure, Pakistan, Water
flood, Irrigation, Loss, Pakistan, Water
In our last post, we highlighted the lack of control of OGRA over the LPG price dynamics. Now, OGRA has taken notice of the situation and have warned all LPG marketing companies to refrain from overcharging practices and follows the authority fixed prices. This dawn news report gives the details:
Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority on Friday fixed the maximum consumer price for liquefied petroleum at Rs95 per kg and issued stern warning to LPG marketing companies involved in price manipulation.
The authority fixed the maximum reasonable consumer price of locally produced LPG at Rs80 per kg and for imported LPG at Rs95 per kg. It also determined the price for mix of local and imported LPG at Rs82.71 kg.
The prices are applicable for all the urban and rural areas of the country except AJK, Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan where additional Rs30 for an 11.8-kg cylinder may be added to each type of LPG due to higher transportation cost.
Taking advantage of the leniency of the regulator, the LPG marketing companies and LPG distributors are selling the fuel at exorbitant rates up to Rs135 per kg in some parts of the country.
Read more…
Gas, LPG, OGRA, Pakistan
LPG, ogra, Pakistan, prices
The unjustified LPG price hike is now in notice of the Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals and they have question OGRA (the regulatory) authority on its failure to control the price in the domestic market. The report from Business Recorder gives the details.
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has expressed serious reservations over the failure of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) in playing its due role for controlling LPG prices in the domestic market. Sources revealed to the Business Recorder that the Ministry in a strongly worded letter to Ogra has directed the authority to play its due role and take action against LPG marketing companies that are involved in inflate increase in LPG prices.
According to existing LPG policy, LPG companies are allowed to charge LPG prices that do not exceed the Saudi Aramco Contract Price (CP). “But Ogra has let LPG marketing companies raise the gas price many times during the month of Ramzan,” they said. Petroleum Ministry officials said that delay by Ogra in taking action against LPG marketing companies had raised questions about its role. The role of Ministry of Petroleum is to formulate policies whereas Ogra is a regulator and its responsibility is to ensure a price that does not exceed CP.
When contacted, Executive Director (Operations) Ogra, Sarmad Aslam confirmed that Ogra had received a letter from Ministry of Petroleum and would give its response soon. He said that due to closure of Parco refinery, country was facing LPG shortfall leading to a hike in its price. He maintained that Parco would take around 6-7 days to resume operation. He claimed that Authority had started action against undue hike in LPG prices from the weekend just past.
Read more…
Consumers, LPG, OGRA, Pakistan, Policy
LPG, Ministry, ogra
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) allowed on Tuesday a 26 paisa per unit increase in power tariff for consumers of nine distribution companies of Wapda from August 31 on account of monthly fuel cost adjustment.
A Nepra official told Dawn that power companies had sought an increase of 52 paisa per unit under the fuel adjustment formula for July.
But the power regulator allowed an increase 26 paisa and turned down the rest sought on account of system losses, late payments and overall circular debt.
The official said that Nepra had sent its determination to the federal government for notification. The new tariff will be recovered from consumers in the next billing month. The new tariff will not apply to KESC whose fuel-based tariff adjustment will be made separately.
Read more…
Electricity, Energy, KESC, Pakistan, WAPDA
electricity, KESC, nepra, power, WAPDA
