Category: News & Announcement

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Wednesday a major draw in crude oil inventories of 5.421 million barrels for the week ending October 9. Analysts had predicted an inventory draw of 2.835-million barrels. In the previous week, the API reported a build in crude oil inventories of 951,000 barrels, after analysts had predicted a build of 400,000 barrels. Oil prices were trading up on Tuesday afternoon before the API’s data release, despite industry reports from the IEA and OPEC that suggested oil demand growth could be weaker than anticipated.…

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Chevron Corp, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BHP Group all said workers were headed back to production platforms in the U.S.-regulated northern Gulf of Mexico. BHP expects to complete the return of workers to its Shenzi and Neptune production platforms on Sunday, spokeswoman Judy Dane said, adding that resuming flows will depend on how quickly pipelines return to service. It can take several days after a storm passes for energy producers to evaluate facilities for damage, return workers and restore offshore production. The companies that operate oil and gas pipelines…

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Reports indicate that Pakistani authorities held a video conference with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Ernesto Rigo for the stalled 6 billion dollars Extended Fund Facility programme recently in which the Fund team reportedly insisted on raising power tariffs as well as achieving the budgeted tax revenue target of 4.9 trillion rupees for the current year. This comes as no surprise as the second quarterly staff review was stalled in December 2019/January 2020, because the government was unable to do the agreed time bound power sector reforms,…

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Successive official reports on Pakistan’s power sector indicate that the country suffers from a shortage of power generation, transmission losses, lack of planning and inappropriate policies leading to an escalating energy crisis. This power crisis in Pakistan is the direct result of massive institutional and governance failure in the form of reckless energy policies over the last three decades. This begs an answer to the question: what has been the impact of the investments from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with its much-touted power projects, on the energy crisis? Circular…

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ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday again linked revival of the stalled $6 billion programme with increase in electricity prices and additional revenue measures – the two conditions that Pakistan had not fulfilled in January this year, which derailed the programme. The technical teams of the IMF and Pakistan on Thursday held discussions over the steps that Pakistan will have to take for restoring the programme, sources in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Energy told The Express Tribune. The discussions were held through a video link,…

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