Thrust on regional cooperation in energy trade

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FE Report
Chief Adviser's special aide M Tamim Tuesday stressed the need for regional cooperation in energy trades as part of the government's move to exploit all possible sources to ensure the country's energy security in the coming years.
"We can move for a regional cooperation even with a small project like that of a 50-megawatt plant as a pilot project to get the thing going," he said.
Tamim was speaking at the AmCham's monthly luncheon meeting at a city hotel on "Energy Security for Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities," with the chamber president Syed Ershad Ahmed in the chair.
The special assistant to chief adviser on energy issues also pleaded for adjusting prices of the compressed natural gas in line with the automotive fuels like diesel, octane and kerosene.
"CNG has to be looked as an automotive fuel regarding its pricing," he said, adding, "government's subsidy in petroleum and CNG prices cannot run for long as sustainable."
To ensure utilisation of the country's potential coal sector he said the government would finalise the proposed coal policy within its tenure.
"We'll have a coal policy during our tenure. I will start working on the proposed coal policy from next month," he said.
The country should come out from its dependency on a single energy source to diversified one utilising both commercial and non-commercial energy sources and even exploiting nuclear energy potentials, he said.
Currently 85-90 percent of the country's electricity is generated from gas. Power sector consumes 50 percent of total gas.
Despite significant rise in gas production in last several years the country is facing 100 million cubic feet of gas shortage everyday as its demand in industries and power plants are mounting.
Coal can be an alternative to gas for generating electricity, Tamim said.
Besides, the age-old power plants need to be replaced with efficient plant to reduce gas consumption, he added.
Regarding the already launched offshore bidding round he said there may or may not be huge gas reserve in the Bay.
So looking for diversified energy sources is necessary, Tamim said.
The government is considering diversification of its petroleum sources to import oil from different overseas countries instead of Kuwait and Dubai alone.
To enhance electricity production the government is set to sign several deals this year for setting up power plants to generate around 2000 MW, he said
The special aide to the chief adviser also spelled out the government plan to strengthen the state-owned oil and gas exploration company BAPEX to make it fully independent, equipped and operational.