ISLAMABAD: A team of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has initiated on-site audit of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) for the first time. Member Gas Muhammad Arif along with OGRA experts visited the SNGPL where they studied internal business control, systems and procedures adopted by the SNGPL relating to the regulated activity. The team reviewed and studied internal working of the SNGPL, and focused on the gas company’s measures to control UFG losses. The SNGPL extended all possible cooperation, and shared whatever information was requested by…
Read MoreDay: September 28, 2020
NEPRA’S Non-Regulatory Operation
More than its quasi-judicial muscle, the power-sector regulator has started operating through backchannels to challenge the bureaucracy’s entrenched practices that have resulted in a black hole of more than 30pc in electricity generation through transmission, distribution and cost recovery. In February this year, a team of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) led by its top officials reached out to the prime minister, questioning the data sheets presented by his own cabinet colleagues and officials assisting them. The team asked the prime minister to declare a “national power emergency”…
Read MoreShahid Afridi wants to join hands with Sindh Govt to educate children of deprived areas of province
Cricket legend Shahid Afridi has appealed to the Sindh Government to join hands with him in his drive called “Educate a Child”. The famous cricketer turned philanthropist made this appeal in a joint statement along with Zahid Saeed who is the CEO of his partner charity Green Crescent Trust (GCT) The SAF has been running the eight charitable school in Karachi enrolling 2400 underserved students for over two years in collaboration with the GCT that in total runs 150-plus charitable schools in Sindh having enrolment of 29,000 children of the…
Read MoreThree plants relieved of LNG purchases from SNGPL, PSO
ISLAMABAD: Overruling the petroleum division’s objections to looming losses to its companies, the federal cabinet has approved doing away with the condition of “minimum 66 per cent take-or-pay commitment of RLNG (re-gasified liquefied natural gas) for three Punjab-based mega power plants” to earn better privatisation proceeds and scale down power sector liabilities of over Rs2.15 trillion. The petroleum division has put on record that without a budgeted subsidy, the decision will “simply be transferring circular debt from power division companies to petroleum division companies and in fact increasing it”. A…
Read MoreGearing up for better fuels
Only Honda Atlas Cars has been rolling out Euro IV vehicles. Others, including bike assemblers, have been making Euro II vehicles on the excuse that refineries are still producing Euro II fuels. Pakistan has banned imports of petroleum diesel of less than Euro V standard with effect from Aug 1 and Jan 1, 2021, respectively. The shift to higher-standard fuels will push oil marketing companies (OMCs) and refiners to make major operational changes with huge investment in a tough business environment. Sources in the refineries and OMCs have also shown…
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