ISLAMABAD: The cabinet committee on energy on Friday directed for examination of fuel consumption rate at power plants for an efficient inventory management.

It also noted that legal hitches relating to debt management of power sector had not been overcome so far.

Informed sources said that the ministry of petroleum and planning commission had recently expressed reservations over excessive utilisation of furnace oil for power generation but without achieving optimum output.

“We need to know if the power plants were producing the amount of energy to the extent for which the furnace oil was being supplied,” an official of the petroleum ministry said suspecting some slippage or misuse. But a power ministry official said some of the power plants were too old to give the same output as a newly set up plant could do.

He said some of the power plants operated at less than 50 per cent efficiency and obviously consuming more fuel that ideally they should.

Inefficient use of furnace oil was also resulting in higher energy costs.

A senior power ministry official said that the meeting did not go beyond 20 minutes because of Friday prayers but its focus was on efficient use of furnace oil inventory and management of debt.

The government had planned issuing Rs80 billion term finance certificates on behalf of Wapda and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) but some legal hitches blocked its formal launching.

“It will perhaps take a few more days to resolve legal problems,” an official said.

The meeting also briefly discussed fuel supply to power plants, recovery status and financial situation of the power sector.

It asked the relevant departments to suggest more steps to maintain and improve the current power generation.

Power generation by oil, gas and hydel and plan for generation in next week was also reviewed, according to an official statement.