The Taliban now hold the keys to an untouched trillion-dollar trove of minerals including some that could power the world’s transition to renewable energies, but Afghanistan has long struggled to tap its vast deposits. The Taliban are already in a financial bind since they returned to power 20 years after their ouster, as major aid donors halted their support for…
Read More
During his speech, Raisi said one of his priorities will be to export more added-value refined oil products. Iran produced 2.52 million b/d in July, its highest since April 2019, according to the latest S&P Global Platts survey. Despite US sanctions that are intended to heavily penalize buyers of Iranian oil, China’s independent refineries have maintained some level of Iranian…
Read More
WFor the longest time, Pakistani banks have come under fire for being rent-seeking organisations that do nothing but park the public’s money in risk-free government securities. That is well-evidenced by the investment-to-deposits ratio consistently staying well above 60 per cent, and clocking in at 75pc in July. This government borrowing in turn leads to crowding out of the private sector,…
Read More
The government has sought the National Accountability Bureau’s green light to utilise the 330 mmcfd spare capacity available at both the LNG terminals’ FSRUs (Floating Storage Regasification Units) to avoid gas load-shedding in the winter season. Well-informed sources told The News that the Petroleum Division had written a letter to the NAB in this regard. The NAB is currently investigating…
Read More
In Jordan, one of the most water stressed countries in the world, people have become used to living with very little water.A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that Jordanians will have to halve their per capita use of water by the end of the century. Most Jordanians on lower incomes will live on…
Read More
CASA-1000 is a power transmission project from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan passing through Afghanistan to Pakistan. TAPI is a gas pipeline project designed to import gas from Turkmenistan. While we need gas, we are beset by the problem of excess capacity, of which more is to come in the next 10 years. Projections are that the worse has yet to come…
Read More
