power shortage

November 19 2009

China: China's gas shortage to give a small boost to gasoline

A gas shortage that has hit central and eastern Chinese provinces will give a small boost to gasoline sales by China's oil duopoly, as slower gas supplies force taxis to gas stations, industry officials said on Thursday.

But as taxis burning the clean fuel are heavily concentrated in one region -- the southwestern province of Sichuan and Chongqing municipality -- the impact on China's gasoline balance will be marginal. China is Asia's leading gasoline seller.

Indonesia: President blames PLN monopoly for power blackouts

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono blamed Tuesday the state utility firm PT PLN monopoly for the power shortages across the archipelago.

"It is wrong if PLN is not able *to meet the huge power demand*," the President said at the State Palace before a meeting to discuss the national power shortages.

"PLN wants to do everything alone. Give others a chance with the right regulations and policies . I also want that PLN turns into a great company, *with business* involving trillions of rupiah.

"*But PLN* has to show good management," he said.

Nepal: NOC draws flak for fuel shortage

Petrol pumps in the Kathmandu Valley are running dry for the past few days amid the UML-led coalition’s nod to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to hike petroleum products’ prices.

Around 70 per cent fuel outlets have run out of their supplies. While the rest — run by Nepal Police, Nepali Army and Sajha — has limited stock.

There is a scramble among consumers to fill their vehicles’ tanks as the fuel shortage — a periodic occurrence — threatens to snowball into a major crisis in the next few days. Manoj Karki is one of the harried commuters, whose daily schedule has been thrown out of gear owing to the scarcity. “I don’t have a drop of petrol in my two-wheeler. I’m expected to be at work by 10am. It’s already 9:56am now,” complained Karki, who works at a travel agency in Thamel.

USA (Iowa): Propane Shortage Reaching Critical Levels

The list of troubles for area farmers is growing. First came the rains, now there's no fuel. People who sell and transport liquid propane or “LP” gas say this is the worst shortage they've ever seen.

When the corn is wet farmers need to dry it, they do that by running "corn dryers" on liquid propane.

Propane experts say there are plenty of supplies; it's getting it here to Iowa that's the problem.

Zambia: Zambia may shut sole refinery,rely on fuel imports

Zambia relies on the Indeni refinery to supply fuel to the copper mines, the country's economic lifeblood, and also to run other industry and for consumption by motorists.

Zambia has been experiencing acute fuel shortages in recent weeks, after the collapse of a key refinery component at the Indeni refinery. The shortages threaten to reverse the economic gains made by Africa's largest copper producer.

The government said last week the country had imported 100 million litres of diesel and 60 million litres of petrol since early November to make up for disrupted output at Indeni.

Indeni, when working at full capacity, gets through 90,000 tonnes of crude oil every 45 days, according to company data.

September 8 2009

Burkina Faso: Pénurie de gaz à Ouagadougou

It had to be expected. The gas shortage facing the city of Ouagadougou has opened the door for speculations of all kinds. The misfortune of both being the happiness of others, the opportunity is great for some to do good business. This applies to merchants who normally sell empty bottles and accessories, converted for the occasion by butane gas resellers.

India: Auto-owners cry foul as Admn fails to step on the gas

Faced with shrill protests from city’s auto-rickshaw owners over the shortage of LPG, the administration has said two more filling stations will come up in a month that will make it easier to phase out autos running on petrol and diesel.

While the administration sought to downplay the opposition saying it happened in Delhi too at the time of its transition to the CNG regime, auto-owners say they have run against a wall since there are only two LPG filling stations and clearly they cannot meet the demand for gas that will increase manifold.

Pakistan: City brought to its knees as power shortage crosses 500MW

The electricity situation in the city has witnessed a sharp decline over the last week, and reached a nadir on Monday, with the Karachi Electric Supply Company’s supply-demand deficit crossing the 500MW barrier.

With instances of loadshedding plaguing the city on a near unprecedented level for the last two days, no government authority or elected representative has stepped forward to hold accountable officials of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) for subjecting Karachiites to frequent power failures in the midst of Ramazan - a time when smooth power supply was promised by the utility.

Senegal: Crise de l' électricité au Sénégal

This catastrophic situation is partly due to our carelessness to do advanced searches or unwillingness of authorities to disseminate the results of research done by our researchers to develop other forms of energy such as hydro, wind or solar. What a pity that interesting research is now abandoned or frozen for lack of resources. Again, it is reasonable to ask where are the priorities of the state.

What we need now is a policy that takes into account people's concerns and increased demand. This policy will be supported by a regulatory framework which operates in complete transparency in all markets in this sector could help alleviate the electricity problems.

Venezuela: Low energy investment cause Venezuela blackouts

Two blackouts across several Venezuelan states in under a month have put electricity back on the political agenda in one of the world's top energy producers and threaten President Hugo Chavez's image among supporters.

The socialist leader nationalized Venezuela's electricity sector in 2007 along with the main telephone company and multibillion dollar oil projects.

Since then, rising demand and a legacy of low investment in transmission and distribution lines has caused dozens of power outages in the OPEC member country, a major oil exporter.

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