Tawanai

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

PSO, Pakistan Israel, oil, Pakistan, PSO, Trade

Ogra again increased the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) by Rs 1.75 in the country and is forcing stations to sell gas on higher rates of Rs 57.03 against Rs 55.30.

Ogra has fixed the selling price of CNG for the Potohar Region, Khyber-Pakhtukhawa and Balochistan at Rs 57.03 against Rs 55.30 and for Sindh and the central Punjab Rs 55.30 against Rs 53.03.

Ogra on Sunday issued a notification on revised retail prices of compressed natural gas (CNG) in the country. On the other hand, the All Pakistan CNG Association has rejected the revised retail price of gas and decided to beseige the Ogra headquarters in protest on August 4.

The official spokesman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), Asad Latif, told The News that the concerned authority had issued a notification of the new revised retail price of CNG across the country. All stations would follow the rates of gas according to the notification, he said. He said that overall, Ogra had increased the rates by Rs 1.75 per kilogram throughout the country.

Read more…

CNG, OGRA CNG, government, ogra, Pakistan, rates

Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) is a blend of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Air that is a direct replacement source for Natural Gas. Working on the fundamentals of fuel interchangebility, the LPG-Air mix/blending is an invisible application of LPG not known to many.

The oppurtunities SNG, also known as Substitute Natural Gas, provides include:

Using it as an industrial back-up (during the Natural Gas shutdown/curtailments).

Using it a base fuel to serve area not under service of Natural Gas.

Using it to suppliment Natural Gas during peak demands known as peak shaving.

SNG is made by mixing the vapour LPG with air to a ratio of approximately 45% air and 55% LPG. Why mixing? Becasue LPG is a highly concentrated source of energy, with 2516 BTU’s per cubic foot gross heat content. Which is too rich to be used as a substitute for natural gas without dilution. If the Natural Gas and SNG have an indentical Wobbe Index, they will produce equivalent energies and will combust in the same amount of air. Thus the mixer blends in just the right amount of air and LPG; producing a mix of specific gravity 1.31 (1480BTU/Cu.Ft) and Wobbe Index that will match that of the Natural Gas.

This interchangeable use of SNG and NG makes it a powerful tool to startegically manage Natural Gas shortage.  In the coming posts we will discuss the details of this strategy and technical aspects of SNG.

Energy, Infrastructure, Natural Gas, SNG Natural g, Pakistan, SNG, Synthethic Natural Ga

State of Telecom in Pakistan has a good post about telecom’s role in conserving energy and saving money.

Last year we saw Telenor and Warid vie in the media as the first one to install solar base stations. That was a start and the trend for green, renewable and more efficient solutions will continue. There is a lot more work to be done in the energy conservation and alternative reneable sources of energy for the technology and telecom industry. The infrastructure elements such as base stations consume significant energy and the data centers needed to run the IT operations are also major energy spenders. The infrastructure sharing idea promoted in Pakistan was also a good point in theory but its actual success has not been reported yet.

Typically, around half of the operating expenditure of a network company is spent on electricity, according to Ericsson. The proportion tends to be higher for operators in the developing world because their base-stations may be in remote areas, and therefore require diesel-fuelled generators. So the recent spike in energy prices has prompted operators to look for ways to cut costs.

The Economist ran a story about green telecom networks and ways to conserve energy in the telecom world. Good tips for saving energy from Economist.com include:

There are some relatively simple ways to reduce the energy consumption of a base-station. The first is to turn down the air-conditioning. Many mobile operators now run base-stations at a standard temperature of 35ºC, rather than the previous norm of 25-30ºC. Studies show that the higher temperature does not reduce the equipment’s reliability or life expectancy. “The biggest restriction is actually our technicians, who do not like going into the hut to work at 35 degrees,” says Andy MacLeod, Vodafone’s global networks director.

Operating at this temperature means ambient air can be used for cooling, even in hot countries. An air-filter is installed on one side of the cabin, and a fan is installed on the other, resulting in a steady flow of air. Vodafone plans to replace air-conditioning with this simpler approach, called “freecooling”, in the majority of its base-stations over the next three years, as part of a plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% between 2006 and 2020.

Conservation, Electricity, Energy, Environment, Green, Infrastructure Pakistan, telecom