Gas crisis to ease in a day or two: Nasrul
Gas supply resumes fully in Ctg
FE REPORT | Monday, 22 January 2024
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has hoped that the countrywide natural gas crisis will ease in a day or two.
Urging the consumers to be patient, he said, "The gas problem was severe, but it has started to ease."
The problem at the Moheshkhali floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) has been resolved, he said while talking to journalists in his office in the secretariat on Sunday.
Excellence, Bangladesh's first FSRU owned by US Excelerate Energy, is now re-gasifying around 317 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of LNG, according to official data from the Petrobangla as of January 20.
LNG re-gasification from the FSRU will pick up gradually. The remaining FSRU operated by Summit Group will, however, cease LNG re-gasification and leave the Moheshkhali mooring facility soon.
Mr Hamid said the government is encouraging the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which will help resolve the gas crisis at homes.
LPG is now being used for homes and vehicles, he said, adding that the government has introduced dynamic pricing for LPG consumers.
Nearly 75 per cent of residential users in Bangladesh are currently consumers of LPG. A small number of people use gas stoves.
The country currently has around 2.50 million non-industrial gas consumers and the government has a plan to shift to pre-paid metres.
Currently, some 450,000 pre-paid gas metres have been installed.
All the household gas consumers will be provided with pre-paid gas metres within next three years, said Mr Hamid.
"We have been trying to increase installation of pre-paid gas metres for long but a fund crunch was the limitation," he said.
Now, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Japan have come up, he added.
Meanwhile our Chattogram correspondent adds: Gas supply resumed fully in the port city of Chattogram on Sunday as LNG started flowing through a pipeline from a floating terminal at Maheshkhali in Cox's Bazar.
The gas supply to the pipeline started on a limited scale on Saturday, but the situation improved on Sunday.
Gas shortages lingered due to the lower supply of regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG) caused by technical faults in the floating LNG terminal at Moheshkhali.
The situation had been exacerbated by a daily shortfall of approximately 40 million cubic feet (mmcf) against the demand.
Due to the technical fault at the terminal, there was a major disruption to gas supply in six districts, including Chattogram, Cumilla, and Narayanganj.
The gas crisis affected the port city dwellers and the public transport sector. Passengers suffered a lot due to the transport crisis.
Swagatul Anwar, a city dweller, said, "There was a shortage of vehicles for the last two days. Some transports started services on the roads today, but the fare is still high for gas-powered vehicles."
The bus contractors charged high, he alleged.
General Secretary of Chattogram Metropolitan Road Transport Owners Association Belayet Hossain said, "CNG autorickshaws, human haulers, buses and minibuses stopped plying due to the gas shortage. Gas-powered vehicles were charging high fares."
After 11 pm, some CNG refueling stations could supply gas for only one or two hours for a few days. CNG refueling stations in Chattogram had been totally closed from Thursday night to Saturday evening, but they started selling gas later.
Managing Director of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited (KGDCL) Engineer Rafiqul Islam said gas supply had been normal since Saturday evening. Hopefully, the remaining problem will be solved soon."