A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy (Power Division) met under the chairmanship of Senator Saifullah Abro in Islamabad today, where it was revealed that most of the power plants were closed and state coffers had no US Dollars to import fuel for electricity production, well-informed sources told ProPakistani.
The committee was briefed that despite the available capacity to produce 43,000 MW of electricity, power producers were only generating 20,000-22,000 MW at present.
It was also revealed that 62 percent of total electricity output was reliant on imported fuel, which has now been reduced to 38 percent after incorporating Thar coal as a substitute resource.
Oil importers have been experiencing a lot of difficulty in their receipt of petroleum goods. With the federal government recently lifting restrictions on letters of credit for all commodities after last week’s bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund, import activities may take some time to normalize.
Meanwhile, the nonavailability of sufficient foreign exchange could hamper the overall stock of fuel imperative to power production.
Pertinently, Pakistan’s domestic fuel supply crunch mirrors Southeast Asia’s struggle to procure adequate supplies of petroleum products which was observed during the second half of calendar year 2022 after Russia and Ukraine went to war.
The domestic situation offers local players the dreaded option to choose between smuggled/untested distillate or restrict production to a certain extent, while the state considers avenues for bolstering its dollar reserves in the coming months.
Source: Pro Pakistani