Nagging gas crisis to keep buffeting fresh industries

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M Azizur Rahman
The country's acute gas crisis is set to prolong for at least next two years dimming the prospects for a fresh bout of industrialisation as the existing pipeline networks and compression stations are unable to support additional growth in gas output, officials said Monday.
"We are increasing gas production by conducting fresh drillings in prospective gas structures. But we will not be able to reap the maximum benefit out of it due to lack of adequate infrastructure," Petrobangla chairman Dr Hussain Monsur told the FE early this week.
He said that the country does not have sufficient gas pipelines and compression stations to carry natural gas from gas-rich northern region to the end-users.
Low gas pressure in pipelines has emerged as the major obstacle to supplying gas.
President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) AK Azad hoped that the gas supply crunch would go slowly in the next couple of years.
He said scores of industrial units, especially in the gas-rich region, would start getting new gas connections with the increase of new gas supplies.
Officials said unless the bottlenecks in gas pipelines and compression stations are overcome shortly, the country's industrial growth would face a serious setback.
The economy has been growing by more than six per cent annually over the last four years thanks to unprecedented double-digit manufacturing growth.
But industrialists say trouble looms as a severe gas crisis has already left scores of big factories without power and halted some of the country's most ambitious industrial projects, especially in the port city of Chittagong.
Power plants, industrial units and fertiliser factories, which are already under strain due to energy dearth, will suffer badly as consequences.
Household clients would continue to get low gas pressure until 2012 due to infrastructure bottleneck.
The country's port city of Chittagong is the worst sufferer of the gas infrastructure bottlenecks as scores of industries remained closed after investing billions of taka.
The Ashuganj-Bakhrabad gas pipeline does not have the capacity to carry gas beyond 185 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from the gas-rich northeastern region to the southeastern Chittagong.
But gas demand in Chittagong is over 300 mmcfd.
"We will have to continue gas rationing in industries, fertiliser factories and power plants and continue holiday staggering in industries for the next two years," a senior Petrobangla official said.
He said the government is working meticulously to complete building all the necessary gas pipelines and set up compression stations by 2012 next.
Construction work of several gas pipelines and compression stations is going on, he said.
Apart from developing gas transmission and distribution networks, Petrobangla is working to increase gas output substantially, he said.
Titas's well-12 will start supplying around 12 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas by next week, said the official.
Currently more than 90 per cent of the country's factories and power plants are fired by locally produced gas, which is projected to decline from 2011 and the entire reserve would run out by 2014-2015 at current consumption rate unless new gas is found.
Bangladesh's proven gas reserve now stands at around 6.0 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) and probable reserves are set at 5.5 Tcf.
The country's overall gas output is now around 1,980 mmcfd against the demand for over 2500 mmcfd.
Petrobangla has stopped providing new gas supplies for over a year, maintaining gas rationing in industries.
Yet, power plants having the generation capacity of around 700 megawatts (mw) remained closed only due to gas crisis.
All the compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations are maintaining closure for six hours a day due to short supply of gas.