Category: Highlights

Ministry of Energy has refused to extend farmers any relief over high power bills, inflated primarily by exorbitant fuel price adjustment charge, saying it was NEPRA issue, The News learnt on Tuesday. “As far as fuel price adjustment is concerned, farmers will have to pay it as ministry of Energy has no control on fuel prices,” sources quoted Hammad Azhar, Federal Minister for Energy, as saying in a recent meeting held in Islamabad. “We found a way forward on their other demands. FPA (Fuel Price Adjustment) is a NEPRA’s (National…

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Oil prices reached seven-year highs on Friday as geopolitical tensions and a winter storm in the United States fuelled concerns over supply disruptions. Brent crude rose $1.29, or 1.4%, to $92.40 a barrel by 1100 GMT, having earlier touched its highest since October 2014 at $92.66. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.36, or 1.5%, to $91.63 after also scaling a seven-year peak at $91.91. Both benchmarks were on course for a seventh consecutive weekly gain. “The latest upswing was triggered by a cold snap in Texas, which is fuelling…

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Power Division is to seek legal opinion from Law Ministry on Force Majeure notice issued by Afghan contractor working on CASA-1000 project since Taliban took over control of the country as World Bank is reluctant to take any position on this issue, well informed sources in Economic Affairs Division (EAD) told Business Recorder. The Central Asia-South Asia (CASA-1000) $1.2 billion project which will bring 1300 megawatts (MW) of seasonal power from Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic to Afghanistan and Pakistan has been put on ice after Taliban took over. At a…

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Russia has agreed a 30-year contract to supply gas to China via a new pipeline and will settle the new gas sales in euros, bolstering an energy alliance with Beijing amid Moscow’s strained ties with the West over Ukraine and other issues. Gazprom , which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, agreed to supply Chinese state energy major CNPC with 10 billion cubic metres of gas a year, the Russian firm and a Beijing-based industry official said. First flows through the pipeline, which will connect Russia’s Far…

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 Russian coal merchants are proving to be the winners as European buyers, nervous a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine could lead to disrupted gas supplies, stock up on the dirtiest fossil fuel. Despite Europe’s ambitions to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by the middle of the century, which means weaning itself off all fossil fuels, but especially coal, the continent has been switching to coal from gas since the middle of last year. Even before the current risk invasion and possible Western sanctions on Russia could choke off gas…

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