Gwadar to get 100 MW of additional power from March: DG GDA

Thu, 26 Jan 2023, 8:28 PM

QUETTA, Jan 26 (APP): Gwadar will get 100 MW of additional electricity from Iran on March 01 and will have 24/7 power supply, this cam boost industry, tourism and real estate business in Gwadar.

These views were expressed on Thursday by Director General Gwadar Development Authority (GDA) Mujibur Rehman Qambrani on the Twitter.

He said that the governments of Pakistan and Iran signed an agreement in June, 2022 to supply 100 megawatts of additional electricity to meet Gwadar’s power needs.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during his visit to Gwadar last year had directed the concerned authorities to complete the project in a short period of time, he said.

He said the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) had approved the 132 KV transmission line from Jivani to Gwadar last June.

He said that the construction of the second circuit stringing of 132 KV, and the building of a transmission line from Jivani to Gwadar (94 km) were to be completed at a cost of Rs.2,322.940 million.

Gwadar relies on imported electricity from Iran and the construction of a 132 kV line will connect the coastal city to the national grid for the first time, he said.

Sindh govt to start Pink bus service from February 1 to facilitate working women

NNPS Desk

Thu, 26 Jan 2023, 8:25 PM

Sindh govt to start Pink bus service from February 1 to facilitate working women

KARACHI, Jan 26 (APP): Sindh Transport Department to start Pink People’s bus service exclusively for women to alleviate problems being faced by working women in public transport in Karachi.

The Pink People’s Bus Service will be launched from February 1, 2023 and its first route would be from Model Colony via Shara-e-Faisal to Tower. The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Sindh Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon here on Thursday.

The minister speaking at the occasion said that after successful operations of the orange, red and white buses in the metropolis government had decided to start Pink People’s Bus Service while considering the problems of working women who had to commute by public transport.

The bus service would be available during office timings at intervals of every 20 minutes in the morning and evening while the pink buses would run at intervals of an hour during other timings of the day except the office hours.

Sharjeel Memon said that Pakistan People’s Party was trying to fulfill the promises made to the people of Karachi.
The meeting also reviewed the operations of People’s Bus Service in Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad and launch of Route 4, 5, 6 and 7 in Karachi. The minister directed that the operations of the People’s Bus Service should be started in Sukkur on January 29.

He further directed Managing Director Sindh Mass Transit Authority to visit the remaining routes of the People’s Bus Service in Karachi and review the ongoing repair work for the improvement of the roads as well.

The People’s Bus Service should be started on routes 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Karachi at the earliest so that the facility of modern public transport is available to as many citizens as possible.

Secretary Transport Abdul Haleem Sheikh, MD Sindh Mass Transit Authority Zubair Channa, Operations Manager NRTC Abdul Shakoor attended the meeting.

Ahsan Iqbal hints for energy security in country

Zaka Ullah Ch

Thu, 26 Jan 2023, 8:19 PM

Planning Minister reviews progress of pending HEC initiatives

Read in Urdu

ISLAMABAD, Jan 26 (APP):Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Prof. Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday highlighted the need for energy security in which gas was a critical component.

The Minister expressed the need to educate people about the difficulties the government faces to ensure a low-cost and sustainable gas supply in the country at a time when international gas prices are highly inflated and domestic gas reserves are depleting, said a press release issued here.

A meeting to discuss “Pakistan Natural Gas: Policy Issues and Way Forward” arranged by Integrated Energy Planning (IEP), Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (M/o PD&SI) was held here Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by Prof. Ahsan Iqbal, Minister of PD&SI, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Khurram Dastagir Khan, Minister of Energy and representatives of different energy sector organizations including Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), Directorate General of Gas, Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL), Interstate Gas System (ISGS), Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC).

Ahsan Iqbal also discussed the role of the media in creating awareness about the efficient consumption of natural gas by the general public.
The members also supported the need to replace inefficient conventional gas geysers with the latest solar water heaters in the country.

The meeting concluded with the appreciation of the IEP team for carrying out a detailed report on the supply and demand side management of the gas sector.

The minister directed the IEP team to finalize their research and recommendations in the form of a Natural Gas Policy Analysis report within a fortnight.

In the meeting, an overview of the present status of production, import, and supply of natural gas in the country was discussed, followed by recommendations to improve the gas supply and demand through short-term and long-term policy interventions aimed at different levels.

It was briefed that over the years production of natural gas has declined to 3,505 MMCF in 2021 compared to 4,063 MMCFD in 2010.
Due to depleting local gas resources, the balance recoverable reserves reached the level of 20,951 Billion Cft in 2021.

The depletion trend projects that natural gas production will shrink to 2,306 MMCFD by 2030.
The demand kept growing at a consistent pace although the Government banned new connections in 2011 except residential/special commercial (roti tandoor) connections.

The growth in the residential connection was not prevented until December 2021. The domestic gas consumption for cooking purposes remained constant at 20,000 MMCFt per month however, this consumption increased to its peak in January up to 51,600 MMCFt.

In January, space heating demand was 24,631 MMCFt and for water heating, it was 6,271 MMCFt, which increases the demand for gas in the domestic sector.
To meet the shortfall, the government decided to import LNG in 2015. Initially, 282 MMCFD of LNG was imported in 2016, and this has increased aggressively over the years, reaching 1,162 MMCFD by 2021.

To meet the country’s total gas demand, a net supply of 3548 MMCFD by 2030 would be needed, out of which, 1900 MMCFD will be met through LNG imports. The peak demand forecast is based on gas consumption in the winter season (with the highest peak in January).

A proposed mechanism for the demand-side management of gas was also discussed including the substitution of natural gas in the domestic sector with electricity.
To reduce the demand for gas in the domestic sector, gas prices can be rationalized where gas and electricity prices come to parity.

This will encourage gas consumers to use electricity for space and water heating in the winter. Substitution to electric appliances for space and water heating can save yearly an estimated 74,736 Million CFt in total. As a result, 6,778 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of least-cost electric power can be generated from gas.

Khurram Dastagir Khan further added that increased utilization of natural gas in the power sector could drastically reduce the electricity tariff.
It was highlighted that the existing long-term contracts with Qatar Gas include a clause for contract revision in 2026, which also included a revision of the price cap and the supplier could demand an increase in the LNG delivered cost or just walk away from the contract.

Therefore, Pakistan should expedite the process of entering into fresh long-term LNG import contracts. The meeting discussed the improvement in the LNG import infrastructure including expansion in the LNG terminal and regasification capacity, the possibility of imported gas storage in exhausted gas wellheads, and the development of a North-South Gas pipeline.

The stakeholders suggested that at present, the development of gas storage infrastructure is not financially viable for the country, instead option of trading LNG at the lowest spot market rates could be considered, which is globally becoming a popular concept.

It was then suggested that instead of opting for an expensive subsurface (depleted reservoirs) gas storage option, gas storage over the surface (salt caverns) could be considered which has lower cost implications.
Therefore, a feasibility study may be conducted to identify the cost and areas for such storage.

On natural gas exploration and production (E&P) activities, it was discussed that the appropriate incentives including wellhead prices comparable with regional countries could be offered.
Ahsan Iqbal highlighted that the development of the Turkamistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline were potential gas supply source for the country.

The session also discussed the possible gas pricing mechanism that could be developed.
The consumer prices which are supposed to be revised biannually, could not be revised timely leading to the accumulation of a tariff differential of Rs. 577 billion till June 2022.
The RLNG price is monthly determined and notified by OGRA, unlike indigenous gas consumer pricing where even biannual revisions could not be made.

The entire gas pricing is operating on cross-subsidy particularly to protect residential consumers, therefore, there has been no full cost recovery from cross-subsidized consumers.

The existing distortion in natural gas tariff could be eliminated and the tariff could be rationalized besides abolishing the cross-subsidy mechanism and replacing the same with a budgeted subsidy to protect the low-end / lifeline gas consumers. It was also discussed that the cost-reflective pricing of the gas sector will be a key decision to develop a sustainable natural gas supply chain in the country.

PILDAT issues analysis of 321st session of Senate

Zaka Ullah Ch

Thu, 26 Jan 2023, 8:09 PM

ISLAMABAD, Jan 26 (APP):The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) has issued an analysis of the 321st session of the Senate which began on September 26 and prorogued on October 21.

As many as 12 sittings were convened during the session spanning 26 days, said a news release.

The 321st session of the Senate met for 25 hours and 39 minutes with an average time of 2 hours and 8 minutes per sitting.

The longest sitting of the session was held on Monday, September 26 when the House was adjourned after meeting 4 hours and 12 minutes.

The shortest sitting was held on Friday, October 14 when 95.24 per cent agenda items were left over and the House was adjourned due to lack of quorum after meeting for only 6 minutes, even though 41 Senators were recorded as present on the day.

The average delay in starting a sitting was 5 minutes during the session.

On average 43.92 per cent agenda items were left over during the 321st session and the Senate could dispose only 56.08 per cent of its agenda items in 12 sittings.

Lack of quorum was pointed out 6 times in five or 41.67 per cent of the total sittings during the session. The same five sittings were adjourned due to lack of quorum.

During the 321st session, the Senate passed 14 bills. Out of these, 3 private members’ bills were introduced in the Senate while 8 government bills and 3 private members’ bills were transmitted from the National Assembly.

Twenty Private Members’ bills were introduced during the session and all of them were referred to the concerned committees. No ordinance was laid or extended during the session.

During the 321st session, total time consumed for discussion on policy issues spanned over only 3 hours while the Senate consumed 11 hours and 46 minutes on discussion of non-policy issues.

The maximum time consumed in discussing policy issues was on a motion ‘Imposition of taxes on tobacco industry of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ for 40 minutes while the House spent 1 hour and 40 minutes and 1 hour and 37 minutes on discussing non-policy issues of ‘Deteriorating economic conditions and inflation in Pakistan’ and ‘Inefficiency of the government in dealing with floods victims and rehabilitation work’ respectively.

It must be noted that PILDAT has classified that a policy issue is such that involves any amendment in a bill or a recommendation on devising a policy. Any discussion on an issue that does not go beyond mere criticism or highlighting a concern does not fall into policy issue and is treated as discussion or time spent on non-policy issues.