Author: Admin

Karachi: Atif Ikram Sheikh, President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), has strongly urged the federal government to adopt a realistic approach in rationalizing petroleum prices, with a specific focus on high-speed diesel (HSD), to significantly reduce the exorbitant cost of doing business in Pakistan. Atif Ikram Sheikh highlighted that the current pricing mechanism for fuel is disproportionately inflating logistics, transportation, and agricultural supply chain costs across the country. Diesel is the lifeblood of our transport, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors – and, the compounding inflationary…

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said oil from a recently announced deal with Venezuela will be used to replenish the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which has fallen sharply in recent years amid efforts to cushion the impact of global supply disruptions and high fuel prices. In a social media post on Sunday, Trump said the process of “topping out” the reserve would begin shortly, describing the Venezuelan crude as a “Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.” However, it remains unclear how quickly Venezuelan oil…

ISLAMABAD: The conflict involving Iran and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have significantly increased energy import costs across South Asia, adding pressure on Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, inflation and external account. Pakistan’s petroleum import bill rose sharply in the months following the escalation of the Iran conflict, increasing from around $983 million in March 2026 to $1.28 billion in July, while peaking at nearly $1.91 billion in June, according to official trade data. Cumulatively, Pakistan’s petroleum-group imports during March-July 2026 stood at approximately $7.7-$7.9 billion, compared with…

ISLAMABAD: The government has invited international competitive bids for the rehabilitation of fire-damaged Steam Turbine-16 (ST-16) at the Guddu 747 Power Plant, a project expected to restore 297MW of generation capacity and reduce the plant’s generation cost by Rs4.19 per unit. According to the Power Division, rehabilitation of the turbine and its associated generator would bring the generation cost down from Rs13.87 to Rs9.68 per unit, while enabling the plant to return to full combined-cycle operation. ST-16 has remained out of service since a fire in July 2022, forcing the…