An official of Finance Ministry on condition of anonymity said that that saving has nothing to do with better management and was largely due to blessing in the form of a significant dip in oil prices in the international market. He said that the cost of electricity generation, which was heavily dependent on furnace oil based power plants, has declined, promoting saving.
Nawaz Sharif said the government will progressively reduce loadshedding through more generation and better management. Sources said a committee has been constituted by Prime Minister for strategic load management to devise a strategy and present it to the next - the 5th - meeting of the committee. The meeting was further informed that the Qatari government has responded positively to Pakistan's request of LNG import and Qatari companies have shown interest and willingness to invest in pipelines and gas-based power plants.
The meeting decided that Gencos and furnace oil-based IPPs would be replaced by efficient gas-based or coal-based plants. It was also agreed that there will be a diversification of fuel to avoid dependence on one fuel. Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar, Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Ministers for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique, Water and Power, Khawaja Mohammad Asif and Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal Khan, Water and Power Abid Sher Ali, Advisor to PM on National Security Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant to PM on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi attended the meeting along with other senior government officials.