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ENERGY IN PAKISTAN

SECTORS AND SOURCES OF ENERGY

The major energy sectors in Pakistan are domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, transport and other government consumption sector. Domestic consumption has been rising at the highest rate of approximately 9%. Commercial, industrial and transport consumption have also been expanding by 2.8, 3.8 and 4.6%, respectively. However, agriculture and other government sectors have been shrinking in energy consumption by 7.1 and 1.4%.
The main energy sources in Pakistan are oil, gas, LPG, coal, hydroelectricity and nuclear electricity. The annual growth rate during 2000-01 was observed to be 6.55%. The primary energy supplies in Pakistan during this period have been the following:

Note:
Nuclear and hydro-electricity have been calculated as being produced by fossil fuel at 10,000 Btu / KWh.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

The total energy consumed in Pakistan in the year 2000-01 was 25.26 million TOE which was 0.11% less than the previous year. However, in the same period, primary commercial energy supplies increased by 4.8% to 44.5 million TOE. Among the various energy sub-sectors; natural gas increased by 7%, oil by 3.7% and nuclear showed a five-fold increase, whereas, electricity generation declined by 8.9%.

Tonnes of Oil Equivalent (TOE) is the basic unit for expressing all forms of energy. It is based on the British Themal Unit (Btu) content or the potential to produce heat in the respective energy form. A TOE is equal to one tonne of indigenous crude oil which contains 41.895 million Btu on an average.

OIL AND GAS

There were a total of 526 exploratory wells and 679 development wells as of July 2001 for both oil and gas. There were a total of 142 discoveries; 57 for oil and 85 for gas, giving a success rate of 1:3.6 and an exploration density of one well per 1573 km2.

The year 2000-01 witnessed drilling of 18 new exploratory wells for oil and gas. Oil production was 57,762 barrels per day on an average, which was 3.7% more than the previous year. Import of petroleum products declined by 15.7%, while that of crude oil increased by 58.3%. This was mainly due to the commissioning of the Pak-Arab Refinery. Oil consumption declined by 0.8% in 2000-01 compared to the earlier year.

In 2000-01, the average natural gas production was 2,398 million cubic feet per day which was 7.2% higher than the previous year. On the consumption side, natural gas witnessed a growth of 8.3%.

COAL

Pakistan has vast coal reserves i.e. 4.35 billion tones of measured reserves and 12.43 billion tones of indicated reserves. However, coal production declined by 2.3% to register 3.09 million tones in 2000-01. The consumption in the same year was 4.04 million tones.

Of the 4.35 billion tones (BT) of measured reserves; 4.249 BT are located in Sindh, 0.053 BT in Balochistan, 0.048 BT in Punjab and trace amounts in NWFP.

Thar, Lakhra and Jherruck have the three largest reserves with 3,752, 244 and 106 million tones of coal and a high degree of geologic assurance. Although Thar is a huge reserve but its heating value is between 6,223 - 10,288 Btu/lb, which is relatively little. Moreover, the seam thickness (0.25-12.58 metres) is also uneconomical in some areas. The Government of Pakistan plans to develop the Thar Coal Project during 2005-2012 by investing 53,375 million rupees and Lakhra Coal Project during 2003-2009 by investing an amount of 27,450 million rupees.

ELECTRICITY

During 2000-01, 68,117 Gwh electricity was produced showing an increase of 3.6% over the last year. Generation was 71.8% by thermal source, 25.3% by hydel and 2.9% by nuclear source. On the consumption side, 6.6% growth was observed to give a total figure of 48,585 Gwh

The electricity installed capacity in 2000-01 was 17,457 MW. The total power losses in the country in 2000-01 were 25.4%. WAPDA and KESC contributed 22.3% and 36.9%, respectively.

RECENT INTERVENTIONS

Pakistan is moving towards a market-based economy. This is indicated by the deregulation of furnace oil prices on July 01, 2000 and exactly one year later, on July 01, 2001 by the deregulation of petroleum product prices.

Development in the energy sector has been progressing. The Pak-Arab Refinery was commissioned in 2001 with 4.5 million tones refining capacity per year. The Chashma Nuclear Power Plant was commissioned in September 2001 with an installed capacity of 325 MW. A Feasibility Study for the raising of Mangla Dam has also been initiated.

REFERENCES

1. Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan, "Pakistan Energy Yearbook 2001", January 2002.
2. Planning Commission, Govt of Pakistan (Sep 2001), "Ten Year Perspective Development Plan 2001-11& Three Year Development Programme 2001-04".
3. Global Water Partnership, "Draft South Asia - Water Vision 2025" Country Report - Pakistan, 2000.