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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Turkey eyes Thar Coal for Power Generation



KARACHI - Turkey is seeking an energy delegation to visit Sindh to further explore investment opportunities in Thar Coal and energy sector of Sindh.

 This was expressed by Sindh Board of Investment Chairman Muhammad Zubair Motiwala while giving briefing on opportunities and investment potential of energy sector in Sindh during a meeting with Ministry of Energy, Government of Turkey at the office of Ministry of Energy Government of Turkey, Ankara.

 Speaking on the occasion, Motiwala said the SBI welcomed the kind cooperation and facilitation from the Turkish authorities. He invited the Turkish investors to come and invest in Sindh which could become future power house of the world due to huge coal reserves, wind corridor and availability of ever-present sunlight to produce solar energy.

 He said Sindh was blessed with the world’s best wind corridor which had average wind speed of 7-8 m/sec. Two companies M/s Zorlu and M/s Fina of Turkey had already invested in wind energy power project in Thatta district of Sindh.

 During the meeting the Turkish government showed keen interest in the Thar coal region.

 The meeting was attended by the representative of Ministry of Energy (Turkey), directorate general of Energy, Investment Planning and Power Generation Corporation (Turkey), general directorate of Coordination of European Union (EU), Turkish Oil Enterprises, Modern Research and Investment Institution (Turkey) and Geological Research Department of General Directorate of Energy.

 Dr. Nevzat Kavakli, Turkish under Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, said Turkey had an intention to increase bilateral cooperation with Pakistan.

 He said his country required huge volumes of coal for electricity and power generation. He said Turkey’s annual coal imports were more than 22.0 million tonnes to cater domestic needs.

 Turkey was producing more than 8000MW of power from lignite coal.

 The Ministry of Energy proposed to enhance cooperation with Sindh through continuous efforts and showed keen interest to explore Thar coal in more detail.

 Government of Sindh Secretary Coal and Energy Development Department Ajaz Ali Khan who is a member of the delegation, briefed the meeting on the quality and quantity of the coal and the opportunities of investment in Thar region.

 He also highlighted the incentives announced by the government of Pakistan to support investment in Thar Coal.

 The Turkish side highly appreciated the technical details of the lignite coal at Thar and reaffirmed that in short time a team of technical experts would visit Sindh to further explore the opportunity.

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