FE Report
The government has announced 'tougher' move against illegal gas connections from today (Sunday) as it has determined not to approve future connections to any clients if found illegally connected.
Illegal gas connections would permanently be disconnected apart from taking legal actions against the fraudulent acts.
State-owned Petrobangla announced the move Thursday aiming to streamline all natural gas connections before supplying commercially-expensive re-gasified LNG (liquefied natural gas) to consumers.
US-based Excelerate Energy Bangladesh Ltd (EEBL) already brought in its floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) -- Excellence - on April 24 after loading 136,009 cubic metres of lean LNG from Qatar's RasGas.
Delays in construction of necessary pipeline along with tie-up and 'synchronisation' complexities have held up the supply of much-awaited re-gasified LNG over the past couple of weeks.
Natural gas supplies to the national gas grid would start soon from the FSRU, the Petrobangla notification stated terming it 'emergency.'
Price of imported LNG is higher than local gas, hence the drive against illegal gas connections is on to check drainage of national assets, said a senior Petrobangla official. After initiating the supply of re-gasified LNG, the government has planned to provide new piped gas connections for all types of consumers except households.
It has already opened up new connections for industries and state-run gas marketing and distribution companies have initiated to complete all relevant formalities beforehand.The Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MoPEMR) has also moved to withdraw the ban on gas connections to captive power plants.
Scores of compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations that remained inoperative only due to gas crisis might get new life after importing LNG.
Suspension of piped gas connections to commercial consumers is also planned to be withdrawn under the government plan.
"We are now scrutinising every aspect for readying the domestic market to feed new fuel-LNG - to the consumers, which is set to be imported for the first time in the country in April," Petrobangla chairman Abul Mansur Md Faizullah told the FE earlier.
He said scores of gas-fired power plants and fertiliser factories which have long remained closed or faced frequent closure due to gas crisis would be on top of the priority for getting imported re-gasified LNG.
Currently, the government has been giving natural gas connections to industries across the country subject to availability.
Although gas connections to industries are now open, the industries outside the country's economic zones (EZs) are getting less priority as the government is discouraging such connections to bring about smooth distribution systems, said officials.
"We discourage piped gas connections to industries outside the EZ areas to ensure maximum utilisation of the resource," said the Petrobangla chairman.
Domestic natural gas price is expected to increase soon as Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has already announced public hearing dates after accepting tariff hike pleas from state-run gas companies.
He said new industries in northern Sylhet region and the island district of Bhola are getting piped gas connections in significant number due to availability of the resource there. Country's overall natural gas production is hovering around 2,700 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) against the demand for around 3600 mmcfd, according to Petrobangla.
The government has stopped providing piped natural gas connections to household and commercial consumers to cope with the short supply of natural gas.
Piped natural gas connection to industries was also halted for three years from June 2009 to May 2012 under the government's gas rationing programme.
Industry insiders said illegal gas connections have been rampant across the country and state-run Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) alone spotted around 1.0 million illegal gas connections over the past several years.
Illegal connections have been in almost every type of clients including households, commercial entities, industrial units and CNG filling stations.
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