Owners fret over an 'unofficial' embargo on new natural-gas connections to industries in government bid to ease owes of the already-starving gas-guzzling consumers across Bangladesh, sources said.
Although there is no official instruction either from the energy and mineral resources division (EMRD) under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources or state-run Petrobangla to cease new industrial gas connections, the state-owned gas- marketing and distribution companies are not providing such connections for long, market sources said.
"Officially is there no ban on providing new gas connections to industries," says Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker.
"But the boards (of state-owned gas-marketing and distribution companies) are not giving the nod to the applications for new gas connections," he adds about the exigent covert moratorium.
"We shall seek decision from the EMRD under the MPEMR over the issue soon," the Petrobangla chairman says.
Officials have said while there is no bar, there is a government instruction to gas-marketing and distribution companies not to provide new gas connections to industries outside the planned industrial areas, meaning economic zones (EZs), to ensure the country's industrial growth in a planned way without hampering croplands.
Sources say rampant illegal gas connections across the country during the previous authoritarian Awami League government over the past 16 years led to the cessation of new gas supply.
A strong syndicate led by previous government high-ups, local public representatives, top officials of gas-marketing and distribution companies and contractors provided scores of illegal connections by depriving new industries where the necessity of such connections was vital, they added.
The syndicate was so strong that state-run Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) could snap some 67 illegal industrial gas connections and 16 illegal commercial links in a drive in the last one and a half months in Keraniganj, the home area of former state minister for energy and power Nasrul Hamid.
Former TGTDCL Managing Director Harunur Rashid, also hailed from Keraniganj, said the state-run TGTDCL also severed some 385 gas raisers during the drive in the city suburb.
Although the snapping of illegal gas lines was ongoing, the authorities concerned did not carry out such drive in some areas where the illegal gas connections were rampant in connivance with the government high-ups, it has been alleged.
"We've launched drive against illegal gas connections in Keraniganj as such drive was not carried out properly over the past two to three years there," the Petrobangla chairman explains.
Nearly 1.31 million cubic feet of gas has illegally been consumed per day through these ill-gotten connections, he says.
During the drive, the TGTDCL also cut off 11 more illegal industrial gas connections and 30 illegal commercial links in its jurisdiction areas.
Some 4.13mmcfd gas was illegally consumed through these illegal connections in the TGTDCL's jurisdiction areas in total.
Currently, Petrobangla and its subsidiary gas-marketing-and distribution companies are struggling to provide natural gas to existing consumers, sources have said.
The demand in all piped natural-gas connections to industries, power plants, fertiliser factories, CNG filling stations and other consumers across the country is around 5,300 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), according to Petrobangla.
With 80-percent load factor taken into account, the demand is 4,000mmcfd.
But the country's overall natural-gas supply is currently hovering around 2,860 mmcfd, including 901 mmcfd of re-gasified liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to official Petrobangla data as on October 24.
Currently, new piped gas connections to CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations, households and commercial consumers are stopped.
The commercial consumers include restaurants, residential hotels and guesthouses, private hospitals, clinics, laboratories, educational institutions, community centres, community clubs, convention centres, snacks-and bakery-item makers.
Traditional glass, chocolate, 'chanachur', vermicelli, biscuit, soap, ceramic, medicine, colour, 'agor-ator' distilled water, tannery, ice and ice-cream, and salt makers, who use hand-operated tools to manufacture their products, also belong to the commercial consumer group.
New gas connections to hospitals, educational institutions and jails, however, continued.
Fresh connections to captive power plants are discouraged, considering the increase in the country's overall electricity generation.
Country's overall natural-gas scarcity has been prompting Petrobangla to ration supplies to industries, fertiliser factories and power plants over and again over the past one and a half decades since 2009.
Azizjst@yahoo.com