Karachi, Pakistan, Power Ships Idle Worsen Outages
The world’s largest power ship lies anchored off Pakistan’s energy-starved port city of Karachi, just one of its 19 chimneys puffing smoke into the sea air, reports Haris Amwar in Blooberg Business Week news item. The Kaya Bey and a sister vessel, whose furnace-oil generators could halve the city’s peak 600-megawatt energy shortfall, has been largely idle since the Supreme Court suspended its license amid an anti-corruption probe. Karachi’s 18 million people face another summer without the power they need to cool homes or run businesses. The Turkish floating power station dropped anchor in November 2010 as part of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s bid to curb a nationwide power deficit that widened to 6,000 megawatts this month, or 30 percent of demand.
New Zealand Mulls CNG Imports
New Zealand energy companies are considering importing compressed natural gas to help make up a possible gas shortfall when the Maui field runs dry in 2010, as reported in the New Zealand Herald. As the Maui gas field, off the south coast of Taranaki, nears the end of its life, concern is mounting about how to make up the energy shortfall if no new gas fields are found. CNG would overcome several objections to one of the alternatives gaining traction - the importation of liquefied natural gas. But it may be more complicated and expensive. If energy companies decide LNG is the most viable option, they would most likely - with Government help - spend as much as $684 million to build an LNG terminal at Marsden Point or New Plymouth.
