Bangladesh is set to suffer power outage too amid gas crisis, according to sources.
Gas shortages linger due to lower supply of regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) caused from technical faults in floating LNG terminals at Moheshkhali.
Power, energy and mineral resources ministry in an official Facebook post on Saturday said production from gas-fired power plants was low for LNG supply crunch.
Power outage in some areas might occur for a brief period as a consequential effect, it said.
The ministry has apologised for the inconvenience, saying that it has been working relentlessly to resolve the crisis.
Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd (KGDCL) general manager Aminur Rahman said the operation of bulk gas-guzzling units, including power and fertiliser plants in Chattogram, has remained suspended since Friday.
Sources said technical faults in the floating LNG terminals at Moheshkhali led to this abrupt gas crisis.
It will take around a week to reopen the closed industrial units that include Raozan 420-MW power plant, Shikalbaha 440-MW plant, Barabkunda 22-MW plant and Shikalbaha 40-MW plant, Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Factory and Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Ltd.
Mr Rahman said the technical glitch occurred when US Excelerate Energy's FSRU (floating, storage and regasification unit) was reinitiating operations after a two-and-half-month hiatus.
Summit Group's FSRU was preparing to leave the Moheshkhali mooring facility for a scheduled overhauling in early hours of Friday, he added.
However, he said technical glitch has now been fixed.
Excelerate's FSRU, Excellence, is now regasifying around 240 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of LNG, said a senior RPGCL official.
He hopes regasification will pick up gradually.
The remaining FSRU, run by Summit, stopped regasification yesterday (Saturday) and was supposed to leave the Moheshkhali mooring facility today (Sunday), the RPGCL official said.
With the capacity expansion Excellence's current LNG-regasification capacity has got ramped up to around 170,000 cubic meters with send-out capacity of 600mmcfd from its previous capacity of 138,000 cubic metres and send-out capacity of 500mmcfd.
Petrobangla intends to regasify up to 8.33-percent more LNG or up to 650mmcfd until resumption of Summit's FSRU after carrying out overhaul in order to remedy the ongoing natural-gas crisis in Bangladesh, said a senior Petrobangla official.
Summit's FSRU is set to reinitiate regasifying LNG after 45 days.
This is the Summit FSRU's first overhauling since the initiation of commercial operation on 30 April 2019.
According to sources, gas crisis is affecting all sorts of consumers, including industries, power plants, and commercial and household users, leading to cuts in industrial throughput and public sufferings.
Petrobangla said some three dozen gas-fired plants remained shut, as the state entity could supply around 744mmcfd natural gas to the plants against their demand for 2,240mmcfd as of 17 January 2024.
Gas supply situation in power plants has turned worse after the technical glitch at the FSRUs, said the Petrobangla official.
To pacify vexed consumers, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid, however, assured the stakeholders of easing the ongoing gas crisis by March when both FSRUs would be operational.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
