Year: 2020

We have seen oil prices go up and down, up and down over the 100 years my family has been in the oil business. My great grandfather, AP Young, worked the West Texas oilfields until his work boots were sloshing because of all the sweat. Some years, he would sit under a tree and hope someone on the rig got hurt so he could replace them, so he could feed his twelve kids. With the hangover of the COVID-19 pandemic decreasing the need for oil, our daily consumption to fulfill…

Read More

KARACHI: The power sector regulatory authority has advised the government to give autonomy to all the nine state-owned distribution companies like Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) – which supply electricity to end-consumers – after their performance continued to deteriorate over the years. Performance of distribution companies throughout this period (FY15-19) does not meet the objectives of the power sector reforms. “The regulator observes that under the given scenario, the existing setup would not be able to deliver,” National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) said…

Read More

Prime Minister Imran Khan recently said that Pakistan’s economy was on the right track since country’s current account balance recorded a surplus $424 million in July 2020. Pakistan has gone through this boom and bust cycles many times before: an import-driven boom, balance of payments crisis, International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, stabilisation, a period of growth and then back to a crisis. This time is no different. When the PTI government took over in August 2018, the current account deficit had grown to nearly 6 per cent of gross domestic product from…

Read More

ISLAMABAD: Concerned over the poor performance of the power sector, the regulator has blamed the distribution companies (Discos) for overbilling consumers to cover up their inefficiencies and high system losses as the government struggles to put in place an improvement roadmap. In its “State of Industry Report 2019” cleared by the federal cabinet last week, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) warns that continuation of existing policy of loadshedding in ‘high loss’ areas stifles sales growth and increases energy costs. “Backtracking from the reform agenda and not following it…

Read More