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 controversy over appointment of Adnan Khwaja as MD, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC), is setteled after appointment of Director General (DG) Petroleum Concession Naeem Malik as new MD of the company. Details via Business Recorder
Naeem is a seasoned official with wide experience of dealing issues relating to oil and gas sectors. He has also worked as DG Gas and DG Oil in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. During the short span of working as DG PC, he had settled issues of oil and gas exploration and granted record exploration licences to companies in the oil and gas sectors.
After retirement of Mahboob Shah Alam, Naeem was given acting charge of OGDC MD. Adnan Khwaja’s appointment as OGDC MD had sparked controversy. However, he resigned from this post on Thursday. The Supreme Court had also taken suo motu notice of his appointment.
Government, OGDC
Development, gas, oil, Pakistan
We have heard about the IPI gas pipeline on and off. The agreement between Iran and Pakistan was signed for gas pipeline in march this year. The latest is that German Consultants are set to be appointed for this project. Details from paktribune are as below.
Pakistan is set to appoint ILF Consulting Engineers as the consultant for the Iran gas pipeline within six days, making first step toward the much-delayed project to meet energy shortage, a senior petroleum ministry official said on Wednesday.
“The cost of the consultancy project will be $25 million and they will have to complete the technical feasibility within 12 months,” Secretary Petroleum, Ejaz Chaudhry, told our sources. The Germany-based consultants would be working on the pipeline along with National Engineering Services Pakistan Ltd. (Nespak), he said.
Read more…
Gas, Government, Infrastructure
gas, Iran, Pakistan, pipeline
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
In our last post on the Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG); we discussed that LPG when mixed with air in right proportion, gives a perfect replacement for Natural Gas. While mentioning, the potential opportunities SNG can provide we said that Industries can use it as an alternate/back-up gas during the Natural Gas (NG) shutdown or curtailments times. In this post we shall discuss the importance of this alternate gas for industries and its need in the coming times.
In Pakistan, NG crisis are no different than energy crisis. Earlier we had NG shutdown hours/days only in winters, now we even have them in summers. With this happening it is easily predicted that in coming times or not thinking of far in the coming winters the NG shortage is going to get worst.
Managing Director Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Dr Faiz Ullah Abbasi, has affirmed this while addressing a recent business gathering. He has said the at the problems regarding the supply of gas in the coming winter would become more serious as compared to the last year, as the demand and supply gap has started to widen.
Read more…
Energy, Gas, Infrastructure, Pakistan, SNG
government, Industries, Natural gas, OGDC, ogra, Pakistan, PARCO, SNG, SNGPL, SSGC, Sythetic
When we have clear trade embargoes for no trade with Israel. This comes as an astonishment that how can the state oil company PSO go about a deal with an Israel based company. The excerpt from Dawn has more detail:
The Pakistan State Oil, a government-run oil company, has awarded a contact to an Israeli-based firm, Turpak-Orpak, despite the government’s ban on any kind of trade or agreement with an Israeli entity.
The matter was taken up by the Senate Standing Committee on Interior at its meeting on Monday.
The committee did not only deal with the matter of awarding a contract to any Israeli firm but also expressed doubts over the operation of the company close to sensitive installations in the country.
“It is an Israeli military establishment-funded company which is being headed by a military general,” committee’s Chairman Senator Talha Mehmood told Dawn.
“We have learnt that the company had installed its equipment close to sensitive installations and, therefore, I have ordered an inspection of the equipment to ascertain whether they are being used for monitoring purpose,” the senator said.
Mr Talha said that under SRO 76 (1) issued on Sept 2009, no Israeli company could operate in the country, but the PSO management awarded the contract to the firm in 2008.
PSO officials who attended the meeting said the contract had been awarded by the previous management and they had nothing to do with it.
Read more: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/19-pso-grants-contract-to-israeli-firm-080-hh-10
Read more:
PSO, Pakistan
Israel, oil, Pakistan, PSO, Trade
