Pakistan Energy Yearbook FY08: Dependence on imported energy products increasing: Daily Times

By Muhammad Yasir

KARACHI: The country’s dependence on imported energy products has risen by five percent in the last four fiscal years on its growing demand by power plants and transport sector.

The Pakistan Energy Year Book FY08, released by Hydro Carbon Development Institute, showed that the share of imported energy has risen to 35 percent in FY08 against 30 percent in FY04. This is mainly due to higher import of refined petroleum products, crude oil and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for meeting the local demands of various sectors. During last four fiscal years (FY04-08), the energy consumption grew by 8 percent according to Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), whereas energy supplies have risen by 5 percent with significant shift in energy supply mix from gas to oil.

According to the report, the energy consumption of the country stood at 39.4 million tonnes with gas and oil’s share in energy consumption at 40.3 percent and 29.3 percent, while that of, electricity, coal and LPG at 15.2 percent, 13.7 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.

The oil contribution doubled during the last 4 years with consumption reaching 44.7 percent. In FY04, gas share in thermal power generation was 77.5 percent , whereas oil had a share of 21.9 percent. Owing to rising gas shortage and availability of alternative fuel like furnace oil (FO), gas supply to power plants declined annually by 3 percent during the said period. Besides these factors, phenomenal increase in CNG consumption (43 percent CAGR) during this period also confined gas supplies to power sector. In terms of fuel mix, gas remains the primary contributor to thermal power generation with consumption of 8.5 million tonnes (54.9 percent share).

The report said the country’s primary energy supplies posted 23.8 percent growth in FY08 and stood at 62.9 millon tonnes (tons of oil equivalents) versus 50.8 million tonnes in FY04. In FY04-FY08, the average growth of supplies stood at 5 percent with 3.8 percent growth posted in FY07, 9.31 percent growth in FY05 and 8.06 percent in FY04.

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