Oil import bill reduced by 25.56pc to $333m in Nov

[farhan_9909]

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s oil import bill has reduced by $333 million in November over the corresponding period last year mainly due to the continuous decline in oil prices in international market.

The country had imported petroleum products worth of $969.6 million in November 2014 as against $1.302 billion in the corresponding period last year recording a decline of 25.56 percent, showed the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The break-up of $969.6 million showed that country imported petroleum products worth of $670 million in November 2014 as compared to $853 million of the same period of previous year depicting decline of 21.39 percent. Meanwhile, import of petroleum crude ate $299 million.

Being an oil importer, Pakistan benefited from the decline in global oil prices that come down to around $60 a barrel. An official of Commerce Ministry informed that oil import bill would further decelerate in next couple of months. “Oil import can be reduced by $2-3 billion during ongoing financial year,” he told The Nation on Thursday.
The oil import bill could further decrease if government did not suspend gas supply to the CNG stations due to the severe shortage of gas in the country. Due to the closure of CNG stations in winter season, the petrol replaced the gas supply to CNG. The government had decided to suspend gas supply to CNG sector of Punjab for four months starting from November 15 to March 15, 2015.

Earlier, it was expected that oil import bill could accelerate when government suspended the gas supply to the CNG stations. However, continuously decline in oil prices in international market helped in reducing the country’s the import bill.

According to the PBS figures, Pakistan has imported petroleum products worth of $6.11 billion during five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year 2014-15 as against $6.46 billion of the same period last year registering a cut of 5.37 percent. The break-up of oil import bill in July-November $6.11 billion showed that country imported petroleum products worth of $3.86 billion and petroleum crude $2.25 billion.

The government in Annual Plan 2014-15 had set oil import bill target at $15.68 billion for the present fiscal year. However, the aforesaid bill could be lowered than the targeted level due to the continuous decline in oil prices in international market. Therefore, the country’s current account deficit would narrow down considerably, its balance-of-payments position is bound to improve significantly, reduce the fiscal deficit during ongoing fiscal year.

The PBS figures showed that In July-Nov 2014, overall imports reached $20.37 billion against $18.11 billion over the corresponding period of last year, reflecting an increase of 12.50 per cent. Contrary to this, exports witnessed a negative growth of 4.19 per cent, as its value fell to $9.92 billion in July-Nov period this year as against $10.35 billion over the corresponding months of last year. Therefore, the trade deficit reached to $10.45 billion in July-November 2014 from $7.75 billion over the corresponding period of last year.

Oil import bill reduced by 25.56pc to $333m in Nov

 

[dil_dil]

Oil prices dropped even more in December, so maybe 35-40% decrease this month?

 

[Al Bhatti]

Question is where will all that extra money go? Answer: bank accounts

 

[Fracker]

12-14 billion dollar just on oil alone, pakistan needs to work on this front, to Remove oil/gas burden. Pakistan should look into alternative energy to avoid such huge burden on small economy.

 

[Hyde]

That's some saving but I was also interested to know about the barrels of oil they imported from abroad so we would have known if it's 26% of savings coming from the price cut or also the imports has reduced

 

[waz]

The bill should be reduced to the record low prices in the free market.

Pakistan has massive untapped potential in renewable sources, but alas that is a dream until someone competent governs.

 

[SBD-3]

That's some saving but I was also interested to know about the barrels of oil they imported from abroad so we would have known if it's 26% of savings coming from the price cut or also the imports has reduced

Our oil needs are pretty inelastic in nature. Dont expect a decrease in quantity imported. This is predominently price effect.

The bill should be reduced to the record low prices in the free market.

?????????????

Pakistan has massive untapped potential in renewable sources, but alas that is a dream until someone competent governs.

My professor once defined that untapped potential in an excellent way. When asked the question about exploiting that potential. He replied,"Do you know that just the bordering area of AfPak contains minrals worth 250 billion USD!!!! But there is only a small problem with these. The extraction cost in current dollars is 400 billion". For example, Pakistan has 4th largest shale gas and oil reserves in the world but being deep under the surface their extraction is not economically possible. And just like that, 70-80% of our "huge potential" falls under this catagory because the publishers of the story only tell you half of the truth.

 

[waz]

My professor once defined that untapped potential in an excellent way. When asked the question about exploiting that potential. He replied,"Do you know that just the bordering area of AfPak contains minrals worth 250 billion USD!!!! But there is only a small problem with these. The extraction cost in current dollars is 400 billion". For example, Pakistan has 4th largest shale gas and oil reserves in the world but being deep under the surface their extraction is not economically possible. And just like that, 70-80% of our "huge potential" falls under this catagory because the publishers of the story only tell you half of the truth.

Aside from that, which talks of primary resource extraction. I was focussing more on tidal power (greatest potential), wind and the renewables. There is no real sugar coating there and the potential is huge.


Solar, Baluchistan and Punjab.

Tidal power Arabian Sea, Sonmiani beach Baluchistan

Wind power, to a lesser extent, focussed in Karachi and Sind in general.

?????????????

I missed out the word "due".

 

[Viper0011.]

Question is where will all that extra money go? Answer: bank accounts

Its sad and unfortunate as to how little or close to nothing some of you know about your own country's financial health, budgeting, etc. Or have a basic understanding of how a country runs. Have you ever been around or cared to watch or read when your budget is presented for the past 70 years...or even once in those seven decades?

A country which always had a huge loss to show in billions of dollars, unfortunately, doesn't have any "extra" money. The real question should be, how much less of a loss will the next budget show due to less payments for the oil......

12-14 billion dollar just on oil alone, pakistan needs to work on this front, to Remove oil/gas burden. Pakistan should look into alternative energy to avoid such huge burden on small economy.

This will be difficult for Pakistan to do, alternative energy (outside of solar), its research and development, is usually more expensive compared to Hydro, Solar and with Oil (current prices). However, if the Chinese invest in it, and make their return on profits (like they've been doing in many other projects), then its a great idea.

The best way would be to first finish existing electricity production projects so you can say bye bye to the load shedding (or atleast 80-90% of it will be gone over the next 3 years). Then, achieve some economic gains (large scale) associate with the Economic Corridor and Gawader, you'll start to see these gains and some more over the next 4 years.
And THEN get into these other R&D projects for future as you don't have a ton of money in reserves. The reserves need to be built first through trade and economic activity as currently planned.

 

[WishLivePak]

Its sad and unfortunate as to how little or close to nothing some of you know about your own country's financial health, budgeting, etc. Or have a basic understanding of how a country runs. Have you ever been around or cared to watch or read when your budget is presented for the past 70 years...or even once in those seven decades?

A country which always had a huge loss to show in billions of dollars, unfortunately, doesn't have any "extra" money. The real question should be, how much less of a loss will the next budget show due to less payments for the oil......

Especially when we're in deficit every now and then. If the gov't really needed to steal the extra money, why use the surplus funds? They can find a way to steal some other way. The point is, surplus funds or whatever good comes out of this oil price drop will be used to balance other stuff out or bring good for the public. I'm surprised people haven't noticed oil price dropping in Pakistan or electricity prices dropping as well.

But then, as long as any party but PTI is leading the nation, the federal gov't is fake corrupt and so forth. But the day Imran comes, even with 20 hours load shedding, even with children dying everyday, even with severe corruption, it's all ok, because hey, Imran Khan gets to be the PM.

So all hail the Eternal Supreme Leader of Pakistan, Imran Niazi Khan.

 

[Viper0011.]

Aside from that, which talks of primary resource extraction. I was focussing more on tidal power (greatest potential), wind and the renewables. There is no real sugar coating there and the potential is huge. Solar, Baluchistan and Punjab.

You can use some solar and other processes, but solar requires a LOT of land. With the current tech, the need of land and use of land will make it extremely expensive. For Pakistan, the ideal solution is the Hydro. Its the cheapest, can avoid floods, can create a LOT of new businesses, farms, etc in certain dry and desert like areas and can bring billions in revenues and add significant economic activity.

I wrote about creating a tunnel network to re-route water to desert and dry areas. That would stimulate the economy so all these big projects can start, will make the water go round and round, providing cheaper and smaller Hydro reservoirs which can provide opportunity to generate electricity, save people from floods, avoid waste of sweet, quality mountainous (spring water) getting dumped into ocean.

If you build about 20 small to mid sized reservoirs with a canal network on JUST the Indus river, you'll save billions of cubic feet of water, can route this water throughout the entire Pakistan and can overcome floods and electric production issues.

Check this out, I just came across this thread on here. It'll tell you what I am referring to. This should happen in Pakistan too, whether through internal money or external. Its much needed. By the way, the US has this reservoir system in place, you guys should get some consulting services from the US on this and build it with our help:

China-backed $50 bn Nicaragua Canal project launched

 

[Icewolf]

We can turn our Thar Coal into gas by gasification

 

[Al Bhatti]

Its sad and unfortunate as to how little or close to nothing some of you know about your own country's financial health, budgeting, etc. Or have a basic understanding of how a country runs. Have you ever been around or cared to watch or read when your budget is presented for the past 70 years...or even once in those seven decades?

A country which always had a huge loss to show in billions of dollars, unfortunately, doesn't have any "extra" money. The real question should be, how much less of a loss will the next budget show due to less payments for the oil......



This will be difficult for Pakistan to do, alternative energy (outside of solar), its research and development, is usually more expensive compared to Hydro, Solar and with Oil (current prices). However, if the Chinese invest in it, and make their return on profits (like they've been doing in many other projects), then its a great idea.

The best way would be to first finish existing electricity production projects so you can say bye bye to the load shedding (or atleast 80-90% of it will be gone over the next 3 years). Then, achieve some economic gains (large scale) associate with the Economic Corridor and Gawader, you'll start to see these gains and some more over the next 4 years.
And THEN get into these other R&D projects for future as you don't have a ton of money in reserves. The reserves need to be built first through trade and economic activity as currently planned.

Dear Sir,

I complete understand what you are saying and i am sure you also understand how Ministers and top govt. officials use Chartered Accountants and other highly qualified accountants in Pakistan.

 

[Fracker]

This will be difficult for Pakistan to do, alternative energy (outside of solar), its research and development, is usually more expensive compared to Hydro, Solar and with Oil (current prices). However, if the Chinese invest in it, and make their return on profits (like they've been doing in many other projects), then its a great idea.

The best way would be to first finish existing electricity production projects so you can say bye bye to the load shedding (or atleast 80-90% of it will be gone over the next 3 years). Then, achieve some economic gains (large scale) associate with the Economic Corridor and Gawader, you'll start to see these gains and some more over the next 4 years.
And THEN get into these other R&D projects for future as you don't have a ton of money in reserves. The reserves need to be built first through trade and economic activity as currently planned.

As per research, Pakistani Hydero alone is capable of generating around 50+k MW, 10GW is from Wind, while wave and solar are uncapped yet. Also Hydero is the most cheapest as compare to all.

Another working and my preferable is Nuclear. As per research, this is most safest if follows new standards, unless natural climate hit, also 2nd most cheapest. On the top, deploying time is less as compare to all other major sources.

Coal is time consuming, as per Pakistan using it's own resources. Import from other country means again will hit Pakistani Import Bill.

Fusion is another field, and Pakistani is doing well compare to the world, but that will still take 30+ years to finalize and make a working power plant. When that is complete, Pakistan probably never need any other resource for energy.

gwadar is obviously the best bet Pakistan can make, but leaving everything one china will never help. They probably will only concern about their working port and connectivity. But Gwadar needs to appear as a competitor for Dubai. Some good paper plans like Motorway to Kabul, Kashgar and wagha all are in progress, but in this competing world, these all need to speed up, and finish it quickly to make an impact on Pakistani economy.

Another place I think Pakistan can remove burden is to make an solar energy base appliance. I saw some work was done in korea, where ACs, Water Pumps, and mobiles were build with solar panels, and that means if you can inhouse build such capabilities, you probably not need any electricity for other things.

But what ever Pakistan do, they need to remove burden of importing Oil and other stuff and work in direction of Be Pakistan and Buy Pakistan. That will help Pakistan to improve their GDP.

 

[Viper0011.]

Dear Sir,
I complete understand what you are saying and i am sure you also understand how Ministers and top govt. officials use Chartered Accountants and other highly qualified accountants in Pakistan.

Well, I don't think you understand it as much as it needs to be understood. There are people who just like to accuse the running system on here. Who's ONLY wish is, for a certain party/ies or individuals to take power. Whether the electric outages go to 24 hours or nothing ever gets done, that's besides the purpose. As long as their guy sits in the chair. So if your post is just one of those, then you are mistaken and your post is just political bias and conspiracy theories without any proofs.

The fact of the matter is, for the past two years, every single project issued from the Fed and the Punjab government goes through an audit. The budget gets audited. The corruption happens outside of Pakistan and in a very secretive manner. If the import bill is reduced, you've only reduced the loss. I don't think you understand that. There is NO MONEY coming in, from any side into anyone's account. At the end of the day, if you were to show a loss of $ 2 Billion, you know have a smaller loss to show (like $ 2 Bilion - reduction in oil bill).

No politician can use a CA or anything like that. I hate to break it to you.