Page 6 - AsianOil Week 18 2022

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Pakistan’s new Prime
Minister has blamed the
previous government for
not lining up more LNG
cargoes while prices
were low.

Pakistan, Bangladesh cope with

severe heat and fuel shortages

PERFORMANCE THE extreme weather event occurring in recent LNG when prices were historically low.
weeks in the Indian subcontinent is creating a “The load-shedding in the country is due to
worrisome situation. Early summer temper- [the] gross mismanagement and incompetence
atures are leading to concerns about the stress of the previous government,” Sherif told the
being placed on power generation stations National Assembly. Pakistan is facing a bank-
as demand for more electricity is expected to rupt economy, high inflation, rising fuel prices
increase as summer arrives. Not only is gen- and government debt. Last week, Pakistanis
eration capacity cause for concern but also the were experiencing power outages lasting up to
ability of Pakistan and Bangladesh to secure fuel 14 hours per day.
supplies to power their stations. This circum- On top of this, the new government is arguing
stance has been complicated by the fact that that it is not possible to remove government sub-
the region has also been marking the month of sidies for fuels owing to the difficulties this will
Ramadan. create for the country’s citizens.
Pakistan has resorted to load-shedding in The circumstances in Bangladesh are hardly Bangladesh has
order to cope with a loss of around 7,900 MW any better. For a time, the government in Dhaka
in the midst of soaring temperatures. Speak- had thought to ask factories to refrain from using for weeks now
ing to reporters during his first press confer- gas from 5 pm to 9 pm from mid-April until the
ence in late April, Pakistani Minister for Power end of Ramadan in order to conserve supplies for been suffering
Khurram Dastgir Khan said the power sector’s power generation.
circular debt stood at around INR2.46 trillion Gas supplies were suspended in parts of the from what has
($13.2bn) and that 5,740 MW of power was capital for 48 hours on May 3. The reason given been described
out because of a lack of fuel, including LNG, was for maintenance to be carried out on two
coal and oil. He said another 2,156 MW was high-pressure pipelines. as a ‘gas
out of service owing to a lack of maintenance Bangladesh has for weeks now been suffering
and repair. from what has been described as a ‘gas drought’, drought’.
Khan said the power companies require pay- much of it caused by outages related to produc-
ments amounting to INR329bn ($1.8bn) in the tion disruptions at the offshore Bibiyana gas
coming weeks in order to avoiding load-shed- field. The shortages have prompted the country’s
ding. Meanwhile, the international prices for garment manufacturers and exporters associa-
fuels remain high owing to the Russian invasion tion to urge the government to cut all illegal gas
of Ukraine. connections within Bangladesh. Gas outages
Khan, along with new Pakistani Prime Min- and shortages have forced some garment facto-
ister Shehbaz Sherif, who in April replaced ries to stop production.
the ousted Imran Khan, leader of the Pakistan Meanwhile, the government in Dhaka is
Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), put the blame on the debating how it might go about cutting subsidies
PTI government for failing to line up cargoes of for electricity.™

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