Energy & Power

WORLD WATCH

Growing Energy Demand Attracts Investment in Pakistan

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the consistent economic growth of over 7 percent during the last five years coupled with increased income level has led to meteoric rise in the demand for energy, which is growing at 10-12 per centper annum.

In a meeting with Vince Harris, Regional Managing Director of International Power Inc, who called on him at the Prime Minister House, Aziz said that energy security and growth momentum was a vital link for maintaining economic progress of the country.

He said that the government was working to expedite development of alternate sources of energy to meet the growing demand of power on fast pace as well as to produce cheaper and environment friendly energy in the country.

The Prime Minister said that Pakistan had launched its long-term and short-term energy plans to add an additional capacity of 2,000 MW by the end of 2008 to ensure an un-interrupted supply of electricity to meet the growing domestic and industrial needs.

He welcomed the confidence shown by International Power to further invest in the energy sector through formation of consortium and hoped that this would help bridge the energy gap.

Second High-Level OPEC-China Roundtable

The Second High-level OPEC-China Roundtable on Energy was held in Beijing on October 24. The event was jointly organized by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), of the People’s Republic of China and the OPEC Secretariat.

In attendance from OPEC were Member Country representatives and delegates from the OPEC Secretariat. The Chinese delegation included high level representatives from the NDRC's Energy Bureau, the Departments of National Economy, Transportation and International Cooperation as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Others included executives from CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC. The meeting was co-chaired by the Director General of China's Energy Bureau of the NDRC, Zhao Xiaoping, and the OPEC Secretary General, Abdalla Salem El-Badri.

The Roundtable builds on the success of the First High-level OPEC-China Roundtable, which was held in April last year at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria. The objective of the OPEC-China Dialogue is to establish a continued exchange of views at all levels on energy issues of common interests, in particular, security of supply and demand, within a balanced and pragmatic framework that will ensure a fruitful and long-lasting cooperation between the two parties.

The roundtable, conducted in five sessions, covered the following themes: General Policy covering China's 11th Five Year Energy Development Plan and the role of OPEC in oil market stability; Global economic development with special focus on China; Global oil market outlook with special focus on China; Upstream and downstream developments including cooperation between OPEC Member Countries and China; and Data issues and the outlook for China's transportation over the near-term.

Norway Firm Overtakes Indians in Nepal

While over a dozen Indian companies have been waiting for nearly a year now to get the nod from the Nepal government for starting new hydropower projects in the Himalayan nation, a Norwegian joint venture has sailed ahead with two new deals under its belt.

Statkraft Norfund Power Nepal, which entered Nepal's power market last year, has bagged the license for two hydropower projects - Tamakoshi II and III - which can together generate nearly 600 MW.

SN Power, which obtained the licenses in March, plans to complete the projects by 2014.

According to local media reports, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have shown interest in funding the deals and SN Power has started talks with India's Power Trading Corporation to sell the remaining power after domestic consumption in Nepal.

The Norwegian company has been able to steer clear of politics and red tape in which 14 Indian companies -- bidding for various power projects in Nepal -- remain enmeshed.

ONGC to Invest $5 B in KG Fields Agencies

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to invest over USD 5 billion to produce 25 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas from its eastern offshore Krishna Godavari fields by 2013.

The state-run firm has submitted to the regulator Director General of Hydrocarbons an appraisal program of the discoveries it had made in KG offshore basin, putting the in-place reserves at 6.37 Trillion cubic feet (Tcf), industry sources said.

Besides natural gas, ONGC also plans to produce 8,000 barrels of oil per day from the fields.

The reserve estimates and production plan in ONGC's appraisal program, however, do not include its ultra-deepwater UD-1 discovery in KG-DWN-98/2 block adjacent to Reliance Industries' prolific gas discovery block KG-D6.

ONGC estimates another 2-14 TCF of reserves in the UD-1 discovery, sources said, adding half-a-dozen other finds in the same KG-DWN-98/2 block have been clubbed with other discoveries in the region like G-29, GS-4 and Vashistha.

The production planned is better than previously announced plans of 12-15 mmscmd.