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| AsiaViews, Edition: 48/VI/March2010 |
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| Hubco fuel stock falls to critical level |
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ISLAMABAD: The fuel stock of Hub Power Company (Hubco) has declined to a critical 5,000 metric tons from a mandatory requirement of 120,000 metric tons because of non-payment of over Rs52 billion by Wapda.
Javed Mahmood, the chief executive officer of the country’s largest independent power producer, told Dawn that the stock situation had reached such a critical level that even a minor problem in supplies could damage its $1.5 billion assets.
He said he had been urging the government for three years to solve energy sector’s inter-corporate debt problems, but the issue remained unresolved. He said that Hubco should have 120,000 metric tons of furnace oil in its storage tanks, but it had only 3000-5000 tons.
The Hubco chief said the Pakistan State Oil which had stopped fuel supplies because of accumulation of receivables started supplying 5,000 tons after payment of Rs1 billion. “Wapda paid us Rs1 billion yesterday which we have transferred to the PSO,” he added. Mr Mahmood said Hubco’s business was to sell electricity and if Wapda did not pay for the power it had purchased, the company could not make payments to suppliers.
He said that since Wapda had been holding back Rs52 billion of Hubco’s dues, the company was not in a position to clear Rs36.6 billion payable to the PSO.
Mr Mahmood said Hubco could provide 1,200MW of electricity to Wapda, but one of its units was currently on routine maintenance. The other three units with a generation capacity of about 950MW were available to the national grid, he added. |
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| Dawn, 04 March 2010 |
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