Month: August 2022

The petroleum industry in Pakistan has the potential to grow substantially but the long-standing issues of excessive regulation and government-controlled fuel prices have held this industry back, which I explored in my previous column. Prices of fuels like petrol and diesel must be fully deregulated. Instead of determining prices, the government should concentrate on collecting taxes from fuel sales to meet its revenue targets. In a market where prices are determined by supply and demand, there won’t be any perplexing and unexplained deviations in price formulation that may eventually hurt…

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The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA)’s promotion of gas liberalisation by engaging the private sector to avail additional LNG capacity at terminal-II is constantly opposed by the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL). Since the TPA Rules-2012 for gas code for private sector import were in suspension and revised TPA rules were not notified at that time, the matter was deferred till notification of revised third-party access rules. One of the four private sector LNG marketing companies having provisional licences from the OGRA, Universal Gas Distribution Company (Private) Limited,…

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The gas crisis in Karachi persists as the Sui Sorthern Gas Pipelines Limited (SSGPL) has suspended gas supply to the general industry and captive power plants for 24 hours till 8am on Monday. It is to be noted here that gas supply to the CNG sector was already suspended since Friday 8am, and it will be restored on Monday 8am after the suspension of 72 hours. “Load management is being undertaken to provide continuous gas supply to the domestic consumers on a priority basis,” said the SSGPL authorities. “The shortage…

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Industry experts believe the government’s decision to convert three power plants from imported fuel to local coal could result in savings of $175 per tonne which would translate to over $800 million in savings annually from each plant “The government’s decision to bet on local fuel will not only reduce the country’s import bill, on which fuel imports bear the biggest burden, it will also bring down electricity tariff rates,” predicts an analyst. On June 15, 2022, Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan said the government had decided to…

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The government plans to add 9,000 megawatts of solar energy to the national grid, as an alternative energy source to the costly electricity being generated using imported fuel, under an initiative that includes waiving of all import duties along with tax incentives. Earlier this month, the government announced plans to launch solar power projects of around 14,000 megawatts this year. Keeping in view the recent hike in electricity prices following the rise in fuel cost, the government is kicking off 9,000MW projects under ‘Solar Energy Initiatives’ on priority. Sources claim…

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