Pakistan plans to quadruple domestic coal-fired power, move away from gas

Reuters exclusively reported that Pakistan plans to quadruple its domestic coal-fired capacity to reduce power generation costs and ease a crippling foreign-exchange crisis. Khurram Dastgir Khan, Pakistan’s Energy Minister, confirmed to Reuters on Monday that Pakistan will not build new gas-fired plants in the coming years. A shortage of natural gas, which accounts for over a third of the country’s power output, plunged large areas into hours of darkness last year. A surge in global prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has made it unaffordable for Pakistan.