Bangladesh - India energy trading
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Saleque Sufi
Mr. Joyram Romesh, state minister for Power, Government of India, during his visit to Bangladesh proposed a 15 per cent equity partnership of Bangladesh in the under construction 750 MW gas-based power plant at Tripura. The proposal does also reportedly include export of 500 MW power to Bangladesh.
It is a very interesting proposal no doubt but one wonders why India is setting up such a huge power plant in Tripura at all when the state under no circumstances can consume more than 200 MW in the foreseeable future. This power plant will obviously use gas from Rukhia and other Tripura fields which are pretty adjacent to our Salda gas field. It may not be unlikely also that these gas fields have common structure. Bangladesh's stake in the ownership of power plant in India will be really interesting and 500 MW power in 2-3 years from Tripura will be extremely useful. So to start with it sounds quite an interesting proposal no doubt.
For several years, there have been talks among India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka about sharing power and energy resources. USAID sponsored various seminars, symposiums, commissioned few programs to crystallise such efforts. The present writer himself participated in several brainstorming sessions since early 2000. But till now everything remained on thoughts and ideas .Narrow political vision and poisonous bureaucracy made things to go into hibernation. One only hopes that the latest proposal also do not add to that ever-increasing list of lofty ideas.
Bangladesh is in desperate need of additional power. Even the present caretaker government (CTG) despite its sincere efforts failed to make meaningful changes to our power generation scenario due to several handicaps ranging from inadequate fuel supply- gas and coal, inadequate infrastructure ,weak and sick public sectors. CTG initiatives for selecting private sector developer for two large plants at Bibiyana and Sirajgonj also may not see the light of day soon due to mismanagement of tendering process by the power cell.
Petrobangla also failed miserably to explore and exploit gas resource and coal reserves to create confidence among power plant developers about long-term fuel supply to risk investment. In this desperate situation, Indian proposal needs deep thinking. India also does not have any real alternative now. There is no way India can transport the stranded gas or power to other parts in the near future. It is for their own interest that they will like to share with Bangladesh. Indians usually do not do anything if that is not in their interest. There is nothing wrong in that.
In 2005 November after being thrown out of Bangladesh gas sector, the author was invited by a Bangladeshi private sector company to attend few meetings on their behalf with several leading Indian companies like ONGC, GAIL, Engineers India Ltd. We were staying in Delhi Guest house of GAIL where the then CEO of GAIL and Good friend Mr. Prashanto Banarjee used to live with family. We had very useful discussions with senior executives of all these companies about probable area of Indo-Bangla energy co-operation. We remember Dr. Balian Director of ONGC who was even keen to assist in capacity building of BAPEX and share expertise with them. During this period, a good friend of the writer Mrs Sudha Mahalingam, now Member Petroleum and NG Regulatory Board, India, introduced me with senior executive of Mittal Group which was planning to set up the gas-based power plant at Tripura at that time.
We had useful discussion in GAIL guest house where Sudha was also present. Believe me it was visualised at that time that large power plants at Tripura will only be feasible if Bangladesh agrees to import power. But we also thought that there must be thorough geological investigations for gas structure in the bordering region and assess the exact location of the reserve. We thought if the gas structure overlaps, India and Bangladesh could conclude Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to share the gas resource. This is not uncommon in the gas world. There are several instances, namely, Germany - Netherlands, Indonesia - Malaysia, Malaysia - Thailand and Indonesia - Thailand. Now that Indian government has proposed offering equity to Bangladesh in Tripura power plant and export power to Bangladesh, the issue of thorough appraisal of bordering gas fields at Kosba area must also be dealt with.
It is not unlikely that India is draining Bangladesh gas from common structure. It is not unlikely that the power plant will be utilising part of gas from Bangladesh structure.
Without any doubt access to 500 MW power from Tripura in the near future will go a long way in meeting our deficit and it is possibly the quickest probable option. The grid interconnectivity, frequency adjustments and other technical issue including decision on power tariff will come into play. Joint technical committee --if willing -- can resolve these in no time. These are not difficult issues once there are meeting of minds among ruling politicians and trouble-making bureaucrats. It will be better to keep the bureaucrats away as much as possible.
But can we ask our policymakers in the energy sector, if India can proceed so aggressively to set up such a large power plant utilising stranded gas, why did we fail to proceed meaningfully to set up our power plants for several years? Why had the Summit Group not progressed further regarding the Sirajgonj 450 MW power plant initiative of PDB ? Why was the Meghnaghat 450 MW unit -2 initiative fouled up in a dubious deal with scam masters Obaidul Karim's Belhasa -Orion Group? If these two plants could be set up in transparent way, about 850--900 MW additional powers now could mean a lot by this time.
If development of major gas fields foreseen under GSDP could proceed aggressively, we could have about 300 MMCFD additional gas in the grid to fuel additional power generation. If we could set up pipeline compressor stations at designated locations on transmission grid in time (by July 2008) there could be no problem of gas evacuation and transportation. All these happened due to failure of energy sector management during the rule of immediate past government.
These failures have created a situation when India can propose export of power to be generated from stranded gas. So the failure of past government have been responsible for this situation. Can we smell something fishy here? But obviously, it will be looked at as cheap anti-Indian slogan of the known elements which may frustrate any initiative to import power from India.
We used to visit Salda gas fields on occasions when we were engaged in constructing Ashuganj -Bakhrabad pipeline. The gas field is just adjacent to India .There is strong possibility that this field and Rukhia have common pay sands .Why Bangladesh cannot officially take up the matter. In 1971 Kosba was one of our important war front., Many of our valiant freedom fighters gave their lives here. Several times we paid our respect to Kulla Pathar where the remains of many of our martyred fighters are lying in peace.
In 1971 Indian army fought by our side to liberate our motherland. Can India and Bangladesh demonstrate that kind of friendship in sharing the gas resource of Salda-Rukhia structure site besides power sharing from Tripura power plant?
Mr. Joyram Romesh, state minister for Power, Government of India, during his visit to Bangladesh proposed a 15 per cent equity partnership of Bangladesh in the under construction 750 MW gas-based power plant at Tripura. The proposal does also reportedly include export of 500 MW power to Bangladesh.
It is a very interesting proposal no doubt but one wonders why India is setting up such a huge power plant in Tripura at all when the state under no circumstances can consume more than 200 MW in the foreseeable future. This power plant will obviously use gas from Rukhia and other Tripura fields which are pretty adjacent to our Salda gas field. It may not be unlikely also that these gas fields have common structure. Bangladesh's stake in the ownership of power plant in India will be really interesting and 500 MW power in 2-3 years from Tripura will be extremely useful. So to start with it sounds quite an interesting proposal no doubt.
For several years, there have been talks among India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka about sharing power and energy resources. USAID sponsored various seminars, symposiums, commissioned few programs to crystallise such efforts. The present writer himself participated in several brainstorming sessions since early 2000. But till now everything remained on thoughts and ideas .Narrow political vision and poisonous bureaucracy made things to go into hibernation. One only hopes that the latest proposal also do not add to that ever-increasing list of lofty ideas.
Bangladesh is in desperate need of additional power. Even the present caretaker government (CTG) despite its sincere efforts failed to make meaningful changes to our power generation scenario due to several handicaps ranging from inadequate fuel supply- gas and coal, inadequate infrastructure ,weak and sick public sectors. CTG initiatives for selecting private sector developer for two large plants at Bibiyana and Sirajgonj also may not see the light of day soon due to mismanagement of tendering process by the power cell.
Petrobangla also failed miserably to explore and exploit gas resource and coal reserves to create confidence among power plant developers about long-term fuel supply to risk investment. In this desperate situation, Indian proposal needs deep thinking. India also does not have any real alternative now. There is no way India can transport the stranded gas or power to other parts in the near future. It is for their own interest that they will like to share with Bangladesh. Indians usually do not do anything if that is not in their interest. There is nothing wrong in that.
In 2005 November after being thrown out of Bangladesh gas sector, the author was invited by a Bangladeshi private sector company to attend few meetings on their behalf with several leading Indian companies like ONGC, GAIL, Engineers India Ltd. We were staying in Delhi Guest house of GAIL where the then CEO of GAIL and Good friend Mr. Prashanto Banarjee used to live with family. We had very useful discussions with senior executives of all these companies about probable area of Indo-Bangla energy co-operation. We remember Dr. Balian Director of ONGC who was even keen to assist in capacity building of BAPEX and share expertise with them. During this period, a good friend of the writer Mrs Sudha Mahalingam, now Member Petroleum and NG Regulatory Board, India, introduced me with senior executive of Mittal Group which was planning to set up the gas-based power plant at Tripura at that time.
We had useful discussion in GAIL guest house where Sudha was also present. Believe me it was visualised at that time that large power plants at Tripura will only be feasible if Bangladesh agrees to import power. But we also thought that there must be thorough geological investigations for gas structure in the bordering region and assess the exact location of the reserve. We thought if the gas structure overlaps, India and Bangladesh could conclude Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to share the gas resource. This is not uncommon in the gas world. There are several instances, namely, Germany - Netherlands, Indonesia - Malaysia, Malaysia - Thailand and Indonesia - Thailand. Now that Indian government has proposed offering equity to Bangladesh in Tripura power plant and export power to Bangladesh, the issue of thorough appraisal of bordering gas fields at Kosba area must also be dealt with.
It is not unlikely that India is draining Bangladesh gas from common structure. It is not unlikely that the power plant will be utilising part of gas from Bangladesh structure.
Without any doubt access to 500 MW power from Tripura in the near future will go a long way in meeting our deficit and it is possibly the quickest probable option. The grid interconnectivity, frequency adjustments and other technical issue including decision on power tariff will come into play. Joint technical committee --if willing -- can resolve these in no time. These are not difficult issues once there are meeting of minds among ruling politicians and trouble-making bureaucrats. It will be better to keep the bureaucrats away as much as possible.
But can we ask our policymakers in the energy sector, if India can proceed so aggressively to set up such a large power plant utilising stranded gas, why did we fail to proceed meaningfully to set up our power plants for several years? Why had the Summit Group not progressed further regarding the Sirajgonj 450 MW power plant initiative of PDB ? Why was the Meghnaghat 450 MW unit -2 initiative fouled up in a dubious deal with scam masters Obaidul Karim's Belhasa -Orion Group? If these two plants could be set up in transparent way, about 850--900 MW additional powers now could mean a lot by this time.
If development of major gas fields foreseen under GSDP could proceed aggressively, we could have about 300 MMCFD additional gas in the grid to fuel additional power generation. If we could set up pipeline compressor stations at designated locations on transmission grid in time (by July 2008) there could be no problem of gas evacuation and transportation. All these happened due to failure of energy sector management during the rule of immediate past government.
These failures have created a situation when India can propose export of power to be generated from stranded gas. So the failure of past government have been responsible for this situation. Can we smell something fishy here? But obviously, it will be looked at as cheap anti-Indian slogan of the known elements which may frustrate any initiative to import power from India.
We used to visit Salda gas fields on occasions when we were engaged in constructing Ashuganj -Bakhrabad pipeline. The gas field is just adjacent to India .There is strong possibility that this field and Rukhia have common pay sands .Why Bangladesh cannot officially take up the matter. In 1971 Kosba was one of our important war front., Many of our valiant freedom fighters gave their lives here. Several times we paid our respect to Kulla Pathar where the remains of many of our martyred fighters are lying in peace.
In 1971 Indian army fought by our side to liberate our motherland. Can India and Bangladesh demonstrate that kind of friendship in sharing the gas resource of Salda-Rukhia structure site besides power sharing from Tripura power plant?