Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Monday reassured K-Electric’s investors of addressing the bottlenecks in the way of sale of the power utility’s majority shares to Shanghai Electric Power. A delegation comprising K-Electric’s board of directors representing Saudi Arabia’s Aljomaih Investments and other Middle Eastern firms met the finance minister. According to sources, the delegation gave a briefing on the company’s…
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The purpose of the IMF loan programme is to promote macroeconomic stability in Pakistan and fiscal and monetary policies should support the same vision, remarked International Monetary Fund (IMF) Country Representative for Pakistan Esther Perez Ruiz. Speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday, she underlined that the aim of the IMF programme was to bring…
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The United States Mission to Pakistan has announced the expansion of interview waiver eligibility for Pakistani citizens renewing B1/B2 tourism and business visas at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and the U.S. Consulate General in Karachi. This procedural change will improve customer service and enable more efficient processing for the renewal of tourism and business visas for qualified and eligible…
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Talking to journalists on a visit to the project site in Mansehra, the officials of the Sukhi Kinari hydropower project said the project — being built on a BOOT [build, own, operate, and transfer] basis — would add 884-megawatt electricity to the national grid. According to the officials, 93 percent of work on tunnels, 80 percent on penstock, and 90…
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Oil prices reached seven-year highs on Friday as geopolitical tensions and a winter storm in the United States fuelled concerns over supply disruptions. Brent crude rose $1.29, or 1.4%, to $92.40 a barrel by 1100 GMT, having earlier touched its highest since October 2014 at $92.66. US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.36, or 1.5%, to $91.63 after also scaling…
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Power Division is to seek legal opinion from Law Ministry on Force Majeure notice issued by Afghan contractor working on CASA-1000 project since Taliban took over control of the country as World Bank is reluctant to take any position on this issue, well informed sources in Economic Affairs Division (EAD) told Business Recorder. The Central Asia-South Asia (CASA-1000) $1.2 billion project…
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Russia has agreed a 30-year contract to supply gas to China via a new pipeline and will settle the new gas sales in euros, bolstering an energy alliance with Beijing amid Moscow’s strained ties with the West over Ukraine and other issues. Gazprom , which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, agreed to supply Chinese state energy…
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The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) released a statement citing the Prime Minister’s rejection of a proposal to increase petroleum prices by up to 14 rupees per litre effective 1 February — a proposal submitted by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) based on a rise in the international prices of oil but with taxes remaining the same as in…
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The Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), which comprises more than two dozen oil refineries and marketing firms said, “Based on the critical condition of the industry and increasing trend in POL prices, we urge you to ensure that no further petroleum differential claim (PDC) is imposed on the industry as it will have an unmanageable impact on the cash flows…
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The West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil market has exploded to the upside during the trading week, as the $90 level has been overcome. We are a little overextended at this point in time, and I think that plenty of buyers will be willing to jump in and take advantage of any short-term pullback. The $85 level is going to be…
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