Category: Recent Post

With more than half of the country’s total capacity charges payable to state-owned power projects, the government has decided in principle to cut the return on equity (ROE) for all public-sector plants, including hydro, nuclear, old thermal and new regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG)-based projects. The combined impact of the reduction in ROE for these projects has been estimated to be Rs28 billion per annum based on current prices. While this will reduce the overall electricity prices with a significant contribution to the economy and lower production costs, a major…

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The cover of the September/October 2020 issue of Sierra magazine states “The End of Oil is Near”.  The corresponding story “The End of Oil?” was paralleled with a recent segment on Democracy Now.  I think that is wishful thinking.  To the extent that oil demand goes down in the future, it will go down because people can’t afford oil distillates at the price producers need to produce the corresponding oil. The “The End of Oil?” article describes weak oil demand in recent years although it should be stated that global oil…

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QUETTA – The Balochistan government has brought changes in mineral laws to transform state-run minerals companies into vibrant and profitable entities, according to a senior officer of the Mines and Minerals Department. The move is meant to clear the path for the Balochistan Minerals Exploration Company (BMEC) and Balochistan Minerals Resource Company Limited (BMRL) to take mining lease in the province. After the amendment, it would provide legal cover to both the companies, the officer told APP. The initiative would lead to increase revenue generation in the province, he further…

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We have seen oil prices go up and down, up and down over the 100 years my family has been in the oil business. My great grandfather, AP Young, worked the West Texas oilfields until his work boots were sloshing because of all the sweat. Some years, he would sit under a tree and hope someone on the rig got hurt so he could replace them, so he could feed his twelve kids. With the hangover of the COVID-19 pandemic decreasing the need for oil, our daily consumption to fulfill…

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KARACHI: The power sector regulatory authority has advised the government to give autonomy to all the nine state-owned distribution companies like Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) – which supply electricity to end-consumers – after their performance continued to deteriorate over the years. Performance of distribution companies throughout this period (FY15-19) does not meet the objectives of the power sector reforms. “The regulator observes that under the given scenario, the existing setup would not be able to deliver,” National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) said…

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