Category: Recent Post

The troubles faced by the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)—the flagship of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—are perhaps the most conclusive demonstration that the BRI model that has been in place for the last few years is no longer sustainable. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, CPEC had stalled. Not only are the figures commonly cited for the total package of projects under this framework since its launch in 2015—which run as high as $62 billion—no longer accurate, investments of that magnitude are not under consideration either. The projects that…

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Oil producers could be set for another showdown before the end of the year, with heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Russia holding different views on how to approach the halting recovery in oil demand. Renewed restrictions on travel and social gatherings across Europe, along with the tapering of state support packages for companies, are having a chilling effect on demand for crude, just as the OPEC+ group of oil producers, who cut production by a record 9.7 million barrels a day in May, begin to contemplate the next easing of limits on their output. We should…

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In April 2017, Qatar lifted what had been a 12-year moratorium on further development of its vast offshore North Field. Three years later, Qatar is steamrolling forward with the largest LNG expansion the industry has ever seen. If it so desired, Qatar could fund and construct seemingly unending expansions to its already massive, 77 million mt/year, 14-train liquefaction operation. Qatar Petroleum (QP) has effectively said as much, upping its expansion plans twice since 2017. First there was the 2017 North Field East (NFE) expansion, initially aiming to take Qatari LNG…

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LAHORE: The cost of electricity from a biomass-to-electricity power plant is less than solar and wind power plants, said Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) sources. They said the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for biomass fuelled power plant as determined by NEPRA is approximately US cents 8.28/kWhr and those for coal, RNLG, wind, and solar power plant are US cents 7.79/kWhr, US cents 12.44/kWhr, US cents 8.20/kWhr, and US cents 11.31/kWhr, respectively. Media reports suggest that the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved $450 million financing to support…

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KARACHI: Engro Energy Limited CEO Ahsan Zafar Syed estimates that if the DISCO operations are not improved, the inefficiencies in country’s energy sector will take the circular debt to approximately Rs 4 trillion by 2025. He was speaking at the online Corporate Pakistan Group (CPG) Dialogue, organized under the topic ‘Fixing Pakistan’s Power Sector,’ on Friday. The speakers at the dialogue including CEO Engro Energy Ahsan Zafar Syed, Dr Fiaz Chaudhry, Professor of Practice, Director LUMS energy institute Werner-Von Siemens Chair and Aftab Mahmood Butt, Managing director, Kott Addu Power…

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