Year: 2021

Japan’s parliament elected Fumio Kishida to serve as the country’s Prime minister. The new prime minister is scheduled to dissolve parliament next week and call for elections on October 31. The Japanese parliament announced the selection of Fumio Kishida as the new head of the Japanese government, after the entire previous government, led by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, resigned. Fumio Kishida was officially elected Japan’s prime minister on Monday after winning the majority of votes in both houses of parliament. Fumio Kishida, who served as foreign minister from 2012-2017 in…

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Waning foreign direct investment has not been the only concern for the hydrocarbon exploration and production sector; local investors have also been weary because of the decline in domestic production of hydrocarbons and smaller discoveries – of both crude and natural gas – amid falling reserves. And this could very well be a disincentive for foreign investors.

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China has announced in international fora that it won’t finance any coal power plant project outside of China anymore. This has sent shockwaves among stakeholders in Pakistan, who were counting on technology and finance from China to utilise the huge Thar coal deposits of 185 billion tons. China has already built a 660-megawatt power plant in Thar and is in the process of building another power plant along with a coalmine with a capacity of 1,320MW. There are several other Thar coal projects in the pipeline, all based on technology and finance…

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According to a recent report released by PRIME, state-owned electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) have caused a cumulative loss of Rs1,355 billion over the last five years. This includes the loss due to failure in bill recoveries (Rs495 billion), financial loss due to transmission and distribution loss (Rs195 billion), and tariff differential subsidy (Rs708 billion) over 2016-2020. This should not be surprising given the inefficiencies with which the distribution component of the power sector is marred with. It has a direct bearing on under-utilisation of the electricity surplus capacity, which in…

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In a new development, the name of Haroon Rashid is being tipped as new Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Petroleum as the government’s top decision makers have invited him to Islamabad for interview purposes. Top sources, who are privy to the development, told The News that Haroon Rashid being Energy business leader with extensive global experience has also visited the Prime Minister Office where he was interviewed for the slot of SAPM on Petroleum. He has held meetings with the government’s powerful ministers Shaukat Tarin and Asad Umar.…

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