2024-07-21 11:58

ISLAMABAD, July 21 (Reuters) - Pakistan this month will ask Chinese power plants operating in the country to shift to using coal from Pakistan's Thar region rather than imported coal, the power minister said on Sunday. Islamabad may also begin talks on re-profiling Pakistan's energy sector debt during the visit to Beijing, Awais Leghari, head of the energy ministry's Power Division, told Reuters. Leghari will be part of the delegation to discuss structural reforms to the power sector suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which last week agreed on a $7 billion bailout for the heavily indebted South Asian nation. Neighbouring China has set up over $20 billion worth of energy projects in Pakistan. "One of the key purposes of going along is the conversion of our imported coal units to the local coal. That would have a huge impact on the cost of energy, of power in the near future. So that is one of the biggest (items on the) agenda," Leghari said in an interview. Such a transition would benefit the Chinese-owned plants in Pakistan by reducing pressure on Islamabad's foreign exchange reserves, he said, making it easier to repatriate dividends and offering a better return in dollar terms. The transition could save Pakistan more than 200 billion Pakistani rupees ($700 million) a year in imports, translating to a decrease of as much as 2.5 Pakistani rupees per unit in the price of electricity, Leghari said. In April a subsidiary of conglomerate Engro (EGCH.PSX) , opens new tab agreed to sell all of its thermal assets, including Pakistan’s leading coal producer, Sindh Engro Coal Mining to Pakistan's Liberty Power. Liberty said the decision stemmed from Pakistan's foreign exchange crunch and its indigenous coal reserve potential. The minister declined to elaborate on the possible talks with China over re-profiling energy debt. Pakistan's power sector has been plagued by high rates of power theft and distribution losses, resulting in accumulating debt across the production chain - a concern raised by the IMF. The government is implementing structural reforms to reduce "circular debt" - public liabilities that build up in the power sector due to subsidies and unpaid bills - by 100 billion Pakistani rupees ($360 million) a year, Leghari said. Poor and middle-class households have been affected by a previous IMF bailout reached last year, which included raising power tariffs as part of the funding programme that ended in April. Annual power use in Pakistan is expected to fall consecutively for the first time in 16 years as higher tariffs curb household consumption, despite summer temperatures surging to near records, which typically boosts air conditioning and fan use. "We have seen a shrinking demand trend in the past year or year and a half, and we are expecting this to continue unless we rationalise the price of power," Leghari said, adding that the government's major challenge was get demand to stop shrinking. He said that since the per-unit tariff for power is more expensive, both urban and rural households are moving towards alternatives such as solar. "Right now we have close to 1,000 megawatts that are on the grid itself in the form of net metering systems and others. It's a very conservative estimate that (solar) could be five to six times more than that on the grid right now," Leghari said. ($1 = 277.8000 Pakistani rupees) (This story has been corrected to say 'sold to' instead of 'bought from' in paragraph 8) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/pakistan-push-chinese-utilities-pakistan-switch-domestic-coal-2024-07-21/

2024-07-21 06:43

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Reuters) - Malaysia's coast guard said on Sunday it had located and intercepted a large oil tanker that was involved in a fiery collision with another vessel two days ago off Singapore. The coast guard said on Saturday that the Sao Tome and Principe-flagged tanker Ceres I had left the location of the collision that caused a fire and injured at least two crew members. The ship was also believed to have turned off its tracking system, the coast guard said. The Ceres I was found in Malaysian waters with two tugboats towing it, the coast guard said in a statement on Sunday. The Ceres I and the two tugboats have been detained by the coast guard for further investigation, it added. Meanwhile, aerial surveys conducted by the coast guard found minor traces of an oil spill at the location of the collision between the Ceres I and the Singapore-flagged Hafnia Nile, the coast guard said in the statement on Sunday. "The environment department has been informed and will conduct further monitoring," it said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/malaysia-coast-guard-locates-oil-tanker-involved-collision-off-singapore-2024-07-21/

2024-07-21 04:45

BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - Two tropical cyclones will bring gales and heavy rain to China's eastern seaboard this week, with the first expected to make landfall on Sunday, after deadly flash floods struck the country's interior over the weekend. Prapiroon, named after a Thai rain god, is expected to make landfall in China's southernmost island province of Hainan on Sunday night as a strong tropical storm, the first tropical cyclone to hit China this year, national forecasters said. Formed in the South China Sea, Prapiroon's centre was about 275 km (170 miles) southeast of the Hainan city of Wanning as of 7 a.m. (2300 GMT). The maximum wind speed near its centre will be up to 30 metres per second (110 kph) when Prapiroon lands, the National Meteorological Centre said, predicting torrential rains in Hainan and along the coast of Guangdong, China's most populous province. Later this week, Gaemi, which was about 530 km (330 miles) northeast of Philippine capital Manila on Sunday morning, is expected to brush past the northern tip of Taiwan, then make landfall in China as a typhoon, packing wind speeds of up to 50 metres per second (180 kph), according to Chinese forecasters. Taiwan's Central Weather Administration said it expected Gaemi to be closest to the island on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing heavy rain. Extreme rainfall has hit China's southern, central and eastern parts in a flood season that started earlier than usual this year. Record rainfall pounded southern China in April to June, while in the north, dry weather parched fields and threatened crops. In the northwestern province of Shaanxi, a highway bridge collapsed on Friday amid torrential rain, killing at least 12, with 31 people and 18 vehicles still missing. In Sichuan province in the southwest, rescuers had retrieved eight bodies and pulled four people to safety by 8 p.m. on Saturday, after more than 30 went missing amid flash floods. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-braces-twin-tropical-cyclones-after-deadly-flash-floods-2024-07-21/

2024-07-20 23:10

OTTAWA, July 20 (Reuters) - Wildfires raging through the northern part of Canada's Alberta have forced evacuations of three communities, a provincial body said on Saturday, as the oil-rich province continues to fight five different 'wildfires of note' in separate areas. A wildfire of note is often considered to be of significant threat to public safety, communities and critical infrastructure. The evacuation orders have been issued across John D'Or, Fox Lake and Garden River communities in northern Albert, covering close to 62,000 hectares and comprising 5,000 inhabitants. No threat to oil sands production was mentioned. Alberta is in the grip of 158 wildfire events of which 55 are out of control, which means a fire is expected to continue growing and a perimeter has not yet been established. Not all out of control wildfires require evacuation of people. "Fire activity is expected to remain intense throughout the weekend as the hot and dry weather continues," said the Alberta government's wildfire service in a statement. There are over 200 firefighters and support staff, 10 helicopters and 43 pieces of heavy equipment working on this complex, it said, adding the fire was caused by lightning. Meanwhile in neighboring British Columbia, where up to 319 active wildfires are burning, evacuation orders have been issued on Saturday due to an uncontrolled wildfire blazing between two lakes, BC Wildfire Service said on social media platform X. B.C. has had 58 new wildfire incidents in the last 24 hours with three 'wildfires of note' in the southern region - the Shetland Creek, Aylwin Creek and Komonko Creek. All three are on evacuation alert, the provincial government said. "Fire activity is increasing today in southern B.C. due to the thunderstorms across the interior and into central parts of the province," it said, and added that close to a thousand BC Wildfire Service firefighters are on the ground. More than half of its wildfires are out of control. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/wildfires-canadas-alberta-british-columbia-prompt-evacuation-orders-2024-07-20/

2024-07-20 18:58

July 20 (Reuters) - A global tech outage that was related to a software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike (CRWD.O) , opens new tab affected nearly 8.5 million Microsoft (MSFT.O) , opens new tab devices, Microsoft said in a blog post on Saturday. "We currently estimate that CrowdStrike's update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than one percent of all Windows machines," it said in the blog. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. "While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services," Microsoft said in its blog post. CrowdStrike has helped develop a solution that will help Microsoft's Azure infrastructure accelerate a fix, Microsoft said, adding that it was working with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, sharing information about the effects Microsoft was seeing across the industry. The air travel industry was recovering on Saturday from the outage that caused thousands of flights to be cancelled, leaving passengers stranded or grappling with hours of delays as airports and airlines were caught up in the IT outage. Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) , opens new tab, one of the hardest-hit airlines, said that as of 10 a.m EDT (1400 GMT) on Saturday, more than 600 flights had been canceled, adding that additional cancellations were expected. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-says-about-85-million-its-devices-affected-by-crowdstrike-related-2024-07-20/

2024-07-20 18:56

PARIS, July 20 (Reuters) - A global tech outage that affected operations in many sectors and also hit parts of the Paris Olympics operations proved to be a good test ahead of the Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Saturday. A software update by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, one of the largest operators in the industry, triggered systems problems that grounded flights, forced broadcasters off air and left customers without access to services such as healthcare or banking. It also affected some operations of the organisers of the Paris Games. "Yes there were some significant problems on the morning but it was pretty well dealt with," said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams. "It was quite a good rehearsal." The Paris Games open on July 26. This was not the first time the Olympics were affected by tech failure or attack, with the Pyeongchang 2018 winter Olympics having been a target of cyberattacks. "Cyberattacks are part of everyone's daily lives. The Olympic Games are a huge target obviously," Adams said. "We have a huge amount of safeguards in place. I would not go into detail even if I could explain it. We have been assured by our people and partners that we are very, very prepared." "You can never be too prepared. We had a close call in Pyeonghchang. We have every confidence we know how to deal with it." While praising preparation for the Games, Adams said France's bid for the 2030 winter Games to be voted on in the IOC session next week had been discussed at the IOC executive board on Saturday. The bid which was picked in June by the IOC executive board as its recommendation to the session next week, has still not provided two key guarantees that are needed for its approval. One of the guarantees still to be delivered is the public partnership contribution from the two regions. The French bid involves the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur regions. "Yes this topic was touched on (at the executive board on Saturday," Adams said. France 2030 will be part of a two-Games vote by the session that also involves Salt Lake City as hosts of the 2034 winter Games. "(France 2030) A great proposal. It will be on the agenda on Wednesday (at the session)," he said, but added that political turmoil in France in recent weeks had played a role. "The difficult political situation makes it a bit more difficult. We still have some working days left to go and I urge you to wait until then." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sports/tech-outage-was-good-test-paris-games-systems-says-ioc-2024-07-20/