Year: 2021

Pakistan is teetering towards an energy-cum-economic crisis as natural gas supplies dry up, export-oriented factories that use the fuel close down and households that rely on it for heat and cooking are left in the cold. Critics blame short-sighted government policymaking as textile producers, the backbone of the export industry, warn of an indefinite shutdown from next month due to fuel shortages. The government has already cut supplies to non-export industrial units due to the sudden shortfall in supplies. Gas shortages are pumping up the price of food while many…

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Pakistan and Russia have reportedly agreed to develop bilateral financial infrastructure through their central banks aimed at facilitating trade, investment activities, etc., well informed sources told Business Recorder. This consensus was evolved at the 7th Session of Pak-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation held recently in Yekaterinburg city of the Russian Federation. Pakistani side was led by Minister for Economic Affairs, Omar Ayub Khan. According to sources, Pakistan side expressed interest in connecting to the financial messaging system of the Bank of Russia (SPFS). Both sides resolved…

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Turkey’s lira gained more steam and was up 7% on Tuesday following a historic 25% recovery from record lows, after President Tayyip Erdogan unveiled a plan he said would guarantee local currency deposits against market fluctuations. The currency dipped then strengthened in volatile trade to 12.21 versus the dollar at 0559 GMT, from a close of 13.15. In a late Monday speech, Erdogan said the series of steps will ease burdens from a currency crash over the last few weeks and encourage Turks to hold lira savings rather than dollars.…

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Energy Minister Hammad Azhar said on Monday the “expensive agreements and the installation of unnecessary power houses” during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government from 2013 to 2018 ruined the energy sector. The minister said in a video statement the rent of the expensive powerhouses, installed by the past government, increased by Rs100-300 billion annually, and ultimately the consumers had to bear its burden. He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government would keep on reminding the PML-N of the mistakes it committed during its last tenure in the government.…

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Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in a recent presser hinted at deregulation of gas sector. This regime is showing intention to reduce its footprint in gas sector since the start. Nothing of the sort has been implemented to-date. Although there are developments on private sector lead terminals, the government is yet to cover the last mile. It cannot afford to replace the depleting domestic gas with expensive imported RLNG without correcting pricing. For the past many decades, domestic hydrocarbon energy production largely relied on gas. The country got a lucky…

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