Category: Highlights

October 21, 2020: Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) eyes on Rohtas Dam as it has decided to implement the Project for effective mitigation of floods and store flood water to be used for agriculture. With this in view, WAPDA has been evaluating the possibility to construct thisProject more vigorously. This was revealed during a meeting presided over by WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd) and attended by the senior officers concerned. Underlining the need for construction of dams, the Chairman said that Rohtas Dam, like other water reservoirs,…

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CALIFORNIA: The world’s most popular messaging service is pushing more aggressively into customer service features, including a pay-to-message option for businesses, and says it’s focusing on enterprise tools, not advertising. WhatsApp paused plans for targeted advertising late last year, surprising those who thought it would follow in line with its parent company. “Our focus has been on the business messaging products,” says Matt Idema, WhatsApp’s chief operating officer. He said WhatsApp still envisions ads inside Status, a feature on the app similar to Facebook’s Stories, at some point. WhatsApp announced an…

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On steep, jagged, dirt roads in Balochistan, a fleet of beat down Honda motorcycles make a treacherous trek across the unmanned and largely ignored border between Iran and Pakistan. From afar, to people sitting in Lahore or Karachi, these bikers with large blue drums attached on either side of their bikes might look like milkmen going above and beyond in the line of duty.  In reality, they are smuggling gasoline from Iran into Pakistan. Each biker can transport up to 40 liters, which can earn them up to Rs500 for…

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KARACHI: Engro Corporation reported a 50% increase in profit that reached Rs15.5 billion in the quarter ended September 30, 2020. According to a notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday, the company had registered a profit of Rs10.3 billion in the corresponding quarter of previous year. Earnings per share (EPS) of the company came in at Rs16.12 for Jul-Sept 2020 compared to Rs10.61 in the same quarter of last year. Alongside the result, the company announced a cash dividend of Rs10 per share, taking cumulative dividend for the…

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The US and Canadian governments have been desperate to build new pipelines to ferry oil and gas from offshore developments for decades and at every twist and turn they have been met by legal challenges and protests thwarting their plans. We map out the development of some key oil and gas pipelines on the continent. Used to transport liquids and gases over long distances, oil and natural gas pipelines play a substantial role in the energy economy. Despite the fact that North America consumed around 1.02 billion metric tons of oil…

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ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE), in its upcoming meeting, may approve the import of furnace oil to meet the country’s energy needs in the ongoing winter season. According to sources, the Power Division has requested the CCoE to direct the Petroleum Division make necessary arrangements for the import of 736,078MT of high sulfer furnace oil (HSFO) and 362,080MT of low sulfur fuel oil (LSFO), which would be required for Oct 2020-Jan 2021 to maintain adequate supply and strategic reserves. Similarly, the committee was requested to direct the Finance Division…

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ISLAMABAD: Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan said on Monday that the Sindh government would be directly responsible for gas shortage in Karachi as it was not meeting its responsibilities in this regard. Taking to Twitter, the minister said that the Sindh government has not so far given the right of way (ROW) permission for the 17km Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) pipeline despite repeated letters and meetings with the concerned officials for the last one-and-a-half-year. “Sindh government will be directly responsible for any gas shortages in Karachi,” he maintained. Separately, Omer…

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ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has appreciated the government’s ongoing reform efforts, particularly in the power, governance and financial sectors, and may enhance its assistance to support the reforms process besides balancing a mix between project mode of financing and programme lending. Hartwig Schafer, Vice President of World Bank Group for South Asia Region, during a video conference with Economic Affairs Minister Khusro Bakhtiar, also praised the government initiatives to successfully combat and curtail the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. During the virtual meeting, the two sides discussed the performance of the…

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ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel refused on Monday to approve two bills proposing blanket powers for government functionaries to impose surcharges on electricity consumption and powers for police to arrest consumers for theft. A ruling party parliamentarian from Karachi walked out of the meeting in protest over rules that stop parliament from holding K-Electric accountable for the city’s misery. The meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Power, presided over by MNA Chaudhry Salik Hussain, saw an exchange of political point-scoring between Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan and PPP’s Shazia…

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New Mexico’s high dependence on oil and gas leases, taxes, and royalty payments are threatening the fiscal stability of the state as the oil price collapse has shown the vulnerability of the current state budget revenues, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said in a new report on Tuesday. New Mexico’s original budget for fiscal year 2020 was set at US$7.1 billion, with 25.9 percent of the revenue in support of that budget expected to come from oil and gas leases, royalties, and taxes. In FY 2019,…

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