Govt to review energy conservation plan fortnightly: Ahsraf

ISLAMABAD: Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf Thursday said the government has imposed a ban on new village electrification in a bid to conserve energy and minimize power cuts.

Speaking at function organized by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce here he said the ban would remain intact till the normalization of the current power situation.

The minister said protection to commerce and industries was the government top priority and all out efforts were being made to provide more facilities to this sector.

He said the government would extend full support to the industrialists for setting up their own 2 to 5 MW power plants.

Pervez said the government inherited power crisis and there was a gap between supply and demand of the electricity.

Unfortunately, no concrete planning was made to explore new venues for generating electricity.

He said no unannounced load-shedding was being observed across the country after the measures taken by the government for conservation of the energy.

He said 1000 MW would be added soon to the national grid station which would help improve the situation.

Replying to the demand of the traders to extend market closure timing till 9 pm, he said the issue would be discussed in the review meeting scheduled to be held after 15 days.

Ashraf said the government was taking pragmatic steps to generate more and more energy and expedite work on all the pending projects.

Oil Falls To Near $80 After 2-Day Jump

SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell to near $80 a barrel Thursday in Asia after a two-day jump fueled by growing investor optimism that global crude demand is recovering.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was down 56 cents to $80.31 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed $1.19 to settle at $80.87 on Wednesday after rising 98 cents on Tuesday.

Oil prices have traded in the $70s for most of the last eight months, rising above $80 several times only to fall back amid concerns that crude demand in developed countries is lagging behind an overall economic recovery.

U.S. inventory data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration was mixed, with crude and gasoline supplies rising and distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, falling.

Some analysts have been expecting diesel demand to improve as the economy grows.

“This might herald the first signs of a pick-up in distillate demand,” Barclays Capital said in a report. “As the normalization in economic growth continues, commensurate to which oil demand recovery becomes more broad-based,” inventories should fall.

In other Nymex trading in April contracts, heating oil fell 1.67 cents to $2.077 a gallon, and gasoline dropped 1.56 cents to $2.232 a gallon. Natural gas was up 0.4 cent at $4.761 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude was down 52 cents at $78.73 on the ICE futures exchange.

Unique Homecoming To Vietnam For US Commander

On the day his side lost the Vietnam War, Hung Ba Le fled his homeland at the age of 5 in a fishing trawler crammed with 400 refugees. Thirty-four years later, he made an unlikely homecoming — as the commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer.

On the day his side lost the Vietnam War, Hung Ba Le fled his homeland at the age of 5 in a fishing trawler crammed with 400 refugees. Thirty-four years later, he made an unlikely homecoming — as the commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer.

Le piloted the USS Lassen on Saturday into Danang, home of China Beach, where U.S. troops frequently headed for R&R during the war, which ended on April 30, 1975, when the southern city of Saigon was taken by communist troops from North Vietnam.

That was the day Le and his family embarked on an uncertain journey in a fishing boat piloted by Le’s father, who was a commander in the South Vietnamese navy. They were rescued at sea by the USS Barbour County, taken to a U.S. base in the Philippines, a refugee camp in California and finally to northern Virginia, where they rebuilt their lives.

Le returned on the Lassen, an $800,000 million, 509-foot destroyer with a crew of 300. The ship and the USS Blue Ridge are making the latest in a series of goodwill visits to Vietnam, which began in 2003 when the USS Vandergriff paid a port call to Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon.

“I thought that one day I would return but I really didn’t expect to be returning as the commander of a Navy warship,” Le said Saturday after stepping ashore. “It’s an incredible personal honor.”

The ship visits represent the efforts of both the United States and Vietnam to develop their relationship as a balance to Chinese power in the region, without antagonizing Vietnam’s massive northern neighbor.

Directly east of Danang are the Paracel Islands, where China and Vietnam are engaged in a sensitive territorial dispute over the archipelago, from which the Chinese drove out South Vietnamese troops in 1974. They are also wrangling over the Spratlys, another island chain believed to contain valuable oil and gas reserves.

Le grew up in Hue, a city on the central coast about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Danang where he still has relatives. He returned to a country that is vastly changed from the days of the Vietnam War.

Along the Danang coastline where U.S. troops used to swim and surf, luxury hotels such as Hyatt and Marriott are springing up. Tourists are flocking to the region, where they can shoot a few rounds at a course designed by professional golf star Colin Montgomerie.

The relationship between the United States and Communist Vietnam has also changed dramatically since the former foes normalized relations in 1995. Trade has boomed, and diplomatic and military ties have grown closer.

“Next year will mark the 15th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between our two countries,” Le said earlier in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “I’m very proud of the progress we’ve made.