Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar and former finance minister Miftah Ismail on Sunday locked horns on Twitter over the use of furnace oil for power generation.
It started when Azhar clarified some ‘misconceptions’ about the availability and consumption of furnace oil (FO) and said it was ‘well stocked’ to meet the winter energy needs of the country.
The minister took to his official Twitter handle to state that “in summers Pakistan faced a moderate shortage of furnace oil as the FO (based) power plants ran more than last year (as per merit order) due to low water levels in dams.” In a series of tweets, Hammad stated that the FO consumption was 116% higher.
“Now the FO plants are running because of lowering flows from dams (canals closure) and in a couple of days will be consuming 13,000 tonnes/day of FO,” he said, adding that the country was well stocked on FO in case of further LNG defaults.
The minister informed that “a new refinery policy is being finalised to shift refineries away from the production of FO.”
He went on to state that for winter, 200,000 tonnes of furnace oil has been imported due to three reasons: a higher demand projection, risks of further default by LNG cargoes and low stock levels at independent power producers.
Hammad said that fortunately, during the November-December period, no defaults of LNG cargoes were experienced and so with LNG supply intact, furnace oil plants did not need to run. Responding to the thread, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Miftah Ismail said he would like to “add some information”.
He said that two refineries are currently shut down “because they don’t have space to store furnace oil” and one is trying to “export” the fuel.
“And yet Pakistan State Oil, on government instructions, is importing furnace oil. This seems like miscoordination, no?” he asked.
The former finance minister said that the energy ministry produced “1,223 million kWh power with furnace oil in October”, saying it was “695% above” the level produced in October last year.
Ismail also drew attention to the gas and LNG shortage across Pakistan. “Homes have no gas to cook or heat water and factories are shut because of no gas,” he said.
“This is PTI’s fourth winter. Who do you reckon is responsible?” he demanded to know.
Azhar quickly retaliated by saying that the two refineries — which shut down due to lack of storage for furnace oil — became full because there was no need to run furnace oil plants. He reminded Ismail that LNG deliveries had been “better than expected” in November-December, quoting an 80% retainage.
“Had it not been so you would have been tweeting about bad LNG delivery cargos and thus the need to run expensive furnace oil plants,” the PTI minister said.
He explained that the percentage rise in the use of furnace oil this year “seems big because of a low base effect from last year”, and insisted that the levels are “still four times [lower]” than what the PML-N government used and still abide by the merit order of energy sources.
