Year: 2021

A slower quarter for E&Ps

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The E&P sector’s production of crude oil and natural gas has been declining in recent years due to depleting reserves and discoveries smaller in size. E&P sector’s production flows in 2QFY21 continued to fall with around 6 and 4 percent fall in oil and gas production year-on-year, respectively. Crude oil production during 1HFY21 fell by around 6 percent year-on-year, while gas production declined by 3 percent year-on-year. Decline in production flows along with falling crude oil prices is a key factor for falling revenues in the E&P sector. Oil prices…

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LNG deal: favourable or not

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wo major industries around the world – arms and energy – have continued to dominate for a long time and have driven diplomatic and strategic relations between different countries. Energy diplomacy leads to interdependence on each other. Energy trade is not only confined to commercial business but it also provides opportunities for countries to expand their footprint in foreign markets. Traditionally, the oil lobby has been powerful around the world for decades. However with changing energy dynamics, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) lobby is emerging rapidly as several countries are increasingly using LNG as…

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What’s Behind the Planned Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan Railway?

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From the first tracks laid in 1879 at Gyzylarbat, northwest of the capital of modern-day Turkmenistan, locomotive transport has always been central to Central Asia due to the region’s distance from the open sea. Although first set down amid the expansion of the Russian Empire, today, railways have a central role in the economic planning of the Central Asian states, especially in Kyrgyzstan and double-landlocked Uzbekistan. Afghanistan Expansion In Tashkent on February 2, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan agreed to a roadmap for the building of a 573-kilometer route from Mazar-e-Sharif…

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China’s debt-trap diplomacy: Pak to seek debt relief for power projects

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In China’s debt-trap diplomacy, Pakistan is struggling to repay loans for power projects under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and seeks to reschedule as much as USD 22 billion in outstanding credits. In recent years, Chinese loans have fueled a massive buildout of Pakistan’s power generation, financing that has turned a perennial electricity shortfall into a now-massive capacity surplus that the highly indebted nation can increasingly ill-afford, Asia Times reported. In those debt-rescheduling talks, Pakistani officials are also reportedly asking their Chinese counterparts to decelerate agreed plans…

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Nepra cuts rate of return on three nuclear plants

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ISLAMABAD: The Natio­nal Electric Power Regula­tory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday slightly reduced the rate of return on equity (ROE) from 15 to 14.5pc for three old nuclear power plants of 930MW. This would provide a saving of Rs2.05bn per annum or about 25 paisa per unit for remaining 25-37 year life of these projects, the re­­gulator said in a statement. The management of three nuclear power plants loca­ted at Chashma (C-2, C-3 and C-4) had filed the tariff petitions under Aug 27, 2020 decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Energy…

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