Fuel supply to Wapda restored on govt move

"Fuel oil dispatches had been made to Wapda in the evening but the supplies to Hubco and Kapco would remain suspended." — File Photo

KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) suspended furnace oil supplies to Wapda, Kapco and Hubco by 1.00 pm on Thursday. However it had to restore the supply to state-run Wapda after the government`s intervention.

Fuel oil dispatches had been made to Wapda in the evening but the supplies to Hubco and Kapco would remain suspended, a PSO spokesperson said. The three power generation companies had been receiving 20,000-23,000 tons of furnace oil from the PSO on daily basis, he added.

Circular debt: Govt to float Rs100bn Sukuk bonds in May

ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry has finalised plans to issue Rs100 billion Sukuk bonds before the end of current fiscal year to retire the circular debt that has been a major concern for the power generation companies, oil suppliers, refineries and exploration companies.
“The Rs100 billion denominated Sukuk bounds will be floated in May this year and the target investors are religious-minded people with cash in hand,” said a senior official of the finance ministry.

Circular debt hits E&P companies

KARACHI: The rising circular debt has even hit the oil and gas exploration sector, where drilling activities dropped by 22 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal owing to the liquidity crunch, an official of the ministry of petroleum said on Wednesday.

Only 67 wells have been drilled so far, including carry-over wells, compared will 86 wells during the same period last year, said the official, requesting anonymity. He said if carry-over wells of the last year are excluded from this total, the number of new wells remains only 40 this fiscal — 11 wells lower than last year.

Dr Hafeez Sheikh briefed on debt

ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry higher-ups have informed Finance Advisor Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh that the country’s external debt will increase by $2 billion to $60 billion and the domestic debt by Rs424 billion to Rs4.57 trillion by the end of 2010-11.
The officials briefed the advisor recently that there was a need to formulate and adopt a holistic debt management strategy.

PSO gets Rs8 billion to trim circular debt

ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry on Friday paid Rs8 billion to Pakistan State Oil to reduce its circular debt, however the largest oil marketing company has expressed it concerns over the issue. 
 
In a meeting with the officials of petroleum ministry and the finance ministry and the PSO management here on Friday, it was acknowledged that the circular debt had been caused because of mismanagement and recovery problems by Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco).