Category: Highlights

Ground realities ignored: Nepra set to begin public consultation on CTBCM today

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ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) is all set to start public consultation on Tuesday (Dec 22) on Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) without taking account of domestic ground realities. An overview of the design and implementation of the CTBCM which was approved last month predominantly focuses on developing a Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) at a time when there is excess generation capacity and significantly high value committed capacity additions and structural challenges in the Transmission and Distribution (T&D) segment. The stakeholders including the Planning Commission, KE,…

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China further opens energy sector

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China is committed to a stable global energy market and is further opening its energy sector to the world, said a white paper released Monday.The country has greatly eased market access for foreign investment, and has built a market-based international business environment that respects the rule of law to facilitate free trade and investment, according to the white paper titled “Energy in China’s New Era” released by the State Council Information Office. The document said the country has adopted pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list, reducing restrictions on foreign…

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Observers see rays of hope for 2021 in Canada’s gloomy oil and gas sector

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The sombre mood that has gripped the Calgary-based oilpatch for several years is starting to show flickers of hope, with more financially secure companies making moves to grow in 2021. Recent export pipeline news is offsetting the ongoing reality of volatile commodity prices, general investor distaste for the sector and regulatory uncertainty and leading to more mergers and targeted increases in capital spending plans, observers say. “The oilpatch has changed again. I think it’s changed forever in a few fashions,” said veteran oilman Neil Roszell, CEO of newly created Headwater…

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PSEs – They Can’t Breathe on Their Own – I

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Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) are in news again and we all know the reasons. The sustained failure of governments to successfully run them says a lot about priorities of the rulers. PSM was supposed to serve as the mainstay of industrial development, however, its mismanagement reached such levels that since 2006 governments have made attempts on a number of occasions to dispose it off to the private sector. Even the said attempts being half-hearted and ill-conceived proved futile. We have observed this half-heartedness in many…

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Could Pipelines Bypass The World’s Most Critical Oil Chokepoint?

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In the last decade, the humble Strait of Hormuz has seen a fifth of the world’s oil supply, a third of all liquefied natural gas (LNG), and a third of all seaborne imports and exports in the world pass through its narrow waters. The oil tanker-choked passage is located in a strategic and geopolitical hotspot between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, linking the Persian Gulf on the west side to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea on the southeast end. Many OPEC nations rely on the Strait for…

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