Month: January 2021

KARACHI: Pakistan expects to save about $8 million by importing low-cost liquefied natural gas (LNG) after Dubai’s Emirates National Oil Company Limited (ENOC) defaulted on its supply commitment last week, a senior official confirmed while talking to Arab News on Saturday.  Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL), a state-owned entity that procures and imports the commodity, said on Friday it had arranged one more LNG cargo at low price for the month of February by floating an urgent tender.  “The price is approximately 22% lower than the price of the bidder that withdrew…

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Pakistan’s first and mega High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) project, Lahore-Matiari transmission line, will be ready by April. According to official sources, the project, launched under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), would cost $ 1.68 billion and was the first HVDC project in the country and the second in the entire world. They said the project would help evacuate 4,000MW power from plants in south to urban load centres in Punjab. Work on the project was launched in December, 2018 across Sindh and Punjab, they said. The transmission line was…

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LAHORE: Punjab has accelerated efforts to establish a provincial power transmission and despatch (T&D) firm on the lines of the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC). In this regard, a summary has been initiated by the provincial energy department which seeks approval to establish Punjab Provincial Grid Company and is currently being reviewed by the provincial cabinet, Dawn has learnt. “Sindh has established its own transmission company already. We must have the same arrangement under the 18th Amendment. We are following up on the summary which has been sent to…

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Due to the ongoing circular debt crisis, electricity rates have been increased by Rs1.95 per unit. While the Finance Minister for Energy, Omar Ayub Khan, blames past governments for neglecting the pertinent issue—rightfully so—it is also worth noting that PTI’s tenure has also seen a sharp increase in debt accumulation. As such, to deflect blame entirely is massively unfair. Instead, it is vital to understand that increasing the power tariff is going to burden domestic consumers the most—a faction that neither enjoys subsidies, unlike various industries, nor an uninterrupted provision…

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The Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCOE) has emphasised that in future the government should not guarantee any liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, which should be based on a competitive market mechanism. So far, the government has guaranteed LNG supplies which has exposed state-run gas companies to financial risk. Already, a foreign commodity trading company has filed a case against state-run Pakistan State Oil (PSO). During discussion in a recent meeting of the CCOE, the committee chairman noted that the main challenge in relation to new LNG terminals was the allocation…

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