Global: Total says oil output near peak
The world will never be able to produce more than 89m barrels a day of oil, the head of Europe’s third largest energy group has warned, citing high costs in areas such as Canada and political restrictions in countries like Iran and Iraq.
Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of Total, the French oil and gas company, said he had revised his forecast for 2015 oil production downward by at least 4m barrels a day because of the current economic crisis and the collapse in oil prices.
Bangladesh: No concrete plan to tackle power, gas crises
There is no concrete action plan in sight to tackle the looming power and gas crises even though the country has started seeing load-shedding well before the summer.
Power and Energy Ministry officials said the country is set to face a severe energy crisis as the policymakers of the new government are now trying to get familiar with the activities of the Power and Energy Ministry and its subordinate bodies rather than going into actions.
The summer usually starts in mid-March and continues until mid-October.
Kenya: Consumers brace for new round of gas shortage
A shortage of cooking gas is looming following technical failures at the country’s sole refinery, sparking off fears of a fresh adjustment of prices.
Kenya Petroleum Refineries Limited (KPRL), which produces 50 per cent of the country’s cooking gas, has not been producing the commodity since last week.
Nigeria: Politics, Gas Shortage Threaten 6000mw Target
The much-publicised 6,000 megawatts target of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's administration may not be realised by December this year owing to two factors: in-fighting in the power sector and the shortage of gas to power the generating plants.
These developments, experts fear, may jeopardise about $10 billion private investments in the sector and impact negatively on the seven-point agenda of the administration.
Political intrigues are believed to be responsible for the in-fighting in the sector, leading to the recent probe of the Nigerian Electricity Regula-tory Commission (NERC) over an allegation of N1.5 billion fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had, on February 4, arrested and detained the Chairman of NERC, Dr. Ransome Owan, and six other commissioners on the allegation of perpetrating the fraud.
Pakistan: Bakeries do roaring business after gas loadshedding
RESIDENTS in southern Lahore faced problems after unannounced loadshedding of gas by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) for over 12 hours on Sunday.
The gas supply to Green Town, Township, Model Town, Link Road, Model Town, Akbar Chowk, Faisal Town, Johar Town, Kot Lakhpath and other adjacent areas was suspended by the SNGPL for maintenance. The gas supply to the said areas was suspended at 11am and it was not restored till the filing of the report.
The SNGPL officials were only telling people that gas supply would be restored at midnight. When The News called the helpline, Saleem, an official, said the gas supply was suspended at 12pm noon and it would be restored at midnight.
Vietnam: Nation needs more power lines
An insufficient number of power lines could lead to an electricity shortage, said Pham Le Thanh, director of Electricity of Viet Nam.
EVN should build multi-storey lines to better serve higher demand.
Thanh said there were now 13,000 transformers, and the current capacity of power plants reached 15,000MW, a figure which would need to be increased by another 2,000 transformers and additional power lines.
EVN's warning meant that current plants have used up all of their transmission capacities on the national grid, and without a new and upgraded cable system, the electricity companies would generate more electricity which would then not be transmitted to the consumers who, as a result, would suffer shortages.
