Low economic activity reduces energy demand

ISLAMABAD: Energy consumption declined in the 2008-9 fiscal year because of reduced economic activities and the circular debt issue arising out of high prices of petroleum products.

However, according to the Economic Survey released on Thursday, Pakistan is at present the largest CNG user country.

It said the consumption of petroleum products in the first nine months of the fiscal year declined by 3.4 per cent from the corresponding period of the previous year to 12.89 million tons, gas consumption declined by 2.5 per cent to 931,700 million cubic feet a day and the use of coal by 26.5 per cent to 4.82 million tons.

Electricity consumption grew by 0.7 per cent. The survey said the price difference between CNG and petrol was around 60 per cent and vehicles were still being converted.

There are around two million vehicles on CNG in the country. About 2,700 CNG stations have been set up with an investment of around Rs70 billion.

Consumption of gas increased in commercial, fertiliser, industrial and transport sectors, but declined in power, household and cement sectors.

‘Key power plants remained inoperative due to high circular debt and the cement sector faced a construction slump,’ the survey said.

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) contributes around 0.7 per cent of the country’s primary energy supply mix. The survey recommends that use of LPG should be encouraged in areas where supply of natural gas was not feasible.

The survey said that the total recoverable crude oil reserves in the country on Jan 1 were estimated at 313 million barrels.

Friday, June 12, 2009

The average crude oil production during July-March 2008-9 was 66,532 barrels per day, compared to 70,166 barrels during the same period of the previous year -- a decrease of 5.2 per cent.

The northern region witnessed a decrease of 4,490 barrels per day, but in the southern region the average production increased by 856 barrels per day.

The survey said that the trend of a slowdown in growth of electricity consumption had started in 2006-7.

‘Reduction in electricity consumption was mainly due to shortage of electricity as the power generation companies were unable to meet the high cost of fuel because of circular debt,’ it said.

Coal remained the fuel mainly for brick kilns, but some of it was used by the cement sector.


Courtesy: DAWN