Production in Industries slow, many gas-fired power plants have shut and transport fuel falls run short, with their cascading adversities.
Bangladesh has currently been producing around 2,090 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas on average from all of its gas fields, including those operated by international oil companies (IOCs), far below the overall average production during 2012 of around 2,200mmcfd, according to official data of state-run Petrobangla.
It means the country's overall natural gas production from local fields during 2012 was even 5.26-percent higher than the current aggregated natural gas production from local gas fields, as on December 8, 2023.
The country's existing overall natural gas production, including imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), is also below the overall production during 2015, industry insiders said.
Bangladesh is currently producing aroun2,591 mmcfd of gas, combined with 501 mmcfd of re-gasified imported LNG, according to the latest Petrobangla data.
On the contrary, the country's overall natural gas output only from local gas fields during 2015 was around 2700 mmcfd, which was even 4.25-percent higher than the aggregated overall natural gas production from local gas fields and LNG imports combined.
According to Petrobangla, country's overall natural gas demand is above 4,000mmcfd, thus leaving a gaping short supply.
Of the total gas output from local gas fields, local companies are producing around 801 mmcfd of gas, which is only 38.32 per cent of the overall gas output from local fields.
Two IOCs - US's Chevron Bangladesh and Singapore's KrisEnergy-- are extracting the remaining 1,288 mmcfd of gas or 61.68 per cent of the total output.
Chevron alone, however, is producing 1,246mmcfd, which is around 59.61 per cent of the total gas output from local fields.
Although the country's overall natural gas output from local fields is currently below the 2012 production level, Chevron Bangladesh ramped up its overall output from three of its gas fields - Bibiyana, Moulvibazar and Jalalabad - by 204mmcfd or 19.57 per cent from 2012 to current level, according to Petrobangla data.
"Over the last one decade Bangladesh has launched only one bidding round, and that too was for only three deep-water blocks," says a senior Petrobangla official.
Although Posco-Daewoo was awarded one deep- water block - DS-12 - after the bidding, the South Korean oil- and gas-exploration company left the block in 2020 emptying the block, he said.
"This is an outcome of sheer negligence from the policymakers," energy-expert Professor M Tamim told the FE Saturday.
The government did not put stress on oil and gas exploration, which resulted in the continuous fall in the country's overall natural gas output, he said.
State-run Petrobangla, the government's main entity for oil and gas exploration, also did not pay much heed to the country's overall oil- and gas- production issue, said Mr Tamim, who was the chief of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) during the previous caretaker government.
"It did not do much to increase natural gas output from the country's large gas fields - Rashidpur, Titas and some other in gas-rich Sylhet region," he says.
Despite having similar gas reserves, Chevron ramped up gas output continuously from its fields, while Petrobangla's subsidiary gas- producing companies remained almost idle, he adds.
Mr Tamim also raised questions over the competence of Petrobangla high-ups, which he said, was the cause of the 'non-performance or ill-performance' of the state-run firms in terms of oil and gas exploration.
"I now see no quick fix to ramp up the country's natural gas production from the local gas fields," says another energy expert, Professor Badrul Imam.
It is the outcome of mounting dependency on imported LNG instead of enhancing natural gas output, he says about how the country is being made import-dependent in this particular case.
"The government didn't do much to increase natural gas output from local fields even after 2018 when it started importing expensive LNG," regrets Mr Alam, a Geology professor of Dhaka University
So far, the government has made arrangement for importing three-fold higher volume of LNG from 2026 to the tune of around 9.0 million tonnes per year and doubling the number of floating storage and re-gasification units (FSRUs) to four, he lamented.
Market insiders have said the country has been facing natural gas crisis affecting all sorts of consumers, resulting in cut in industrial output and abject sufferings of the commoners.
To avoid further energy crunch ahead of the general election, slated for January 2024, Petrobangla recently urged the largest natural gas producer, Chevron, to augment overall output by at least 50mmcfd from its three onshore gas fields, Petrobangla sources said.
But, sources said, Chevron currently does not have any scope to enhance gas output from any of its three operating fields.
Regarding gas crisis, executive president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Mohammad Hatem says, "We are not getting sufficient quantity of natural gas, which is hampering industrial output badly."
If natural gas is found in some areas in the morning, they are not getting in the evening, he said as an instance of the crunch.
Similarly, if the industries get gas in the evening, they are not getting the fuel in the morning, the export-industry leader rues.
Industrial output nearly halved as a consequence of fuel fiasco, Mr Hatem adds.
The compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations are getting lower- than-expected gas pressure in many areas where gas-transmission pipelines are narrow, general secretary of Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association Farhan Noor told the FE.
"Natural-gas-pressure requirement in CNG filling stations is around 15 per square inch (psi), but the stations nearing some industrial areas get around 4-45psi often, and in many other areas, it turns to almost zero psi," he alleged.
Power plants are also not getting required gas to generate electricity.
More than two and a half dozen gas-fired power plants are now shut as the state-run Petrobangla could supply around 796 mmcfd of natural gas to power plants against their demand for 2,240mmcfd, according to official data as on December 8.
Azizjst@yahoo.com