Gas supply set to worsen for 72 hours from today
FE REPORT | Friday, 10 January 2025
Natural gas supply would be severely affected for 72 hours from today (Friday) as an LNG regasification facility is set to go for a scheduled repair and maintenance work.
US's Excelerate Energy will suspend operation of its floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) from this (Friday) noon to Monday noon, said a Petrobangla statement on Thursday.
During the three days, only one FSRU will continue to regasify liquified natural gas (LNG) and supply around 550-560 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas,
it said.
Low gas pressure would prevail in some areas of the country due to a reduction in supplies.
This is for the second time in the last couple of weeks Excelerate's FSRU Excellence is going for maintenance work, said an official. Earlier on January 1-4, Excellence suspended LNG re-gasification for repair and maintenance work.
LNG re-gasification from the country's both the FSRUs now hovers around 800 mmcfd, according to Petrobangla figures as on January 9.
Petrobangla, however, expressed its regret for the inconvenience of the people.
Sources said the natural gas crisis is now affecting all kinds of consumers including industries, power plants, commercial users and household consumers, resulting in cut in industrial output and untold sufferings of the commoners.
The compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations are also getting lower-than-expected gas pressure, hindering CNG filling in vehicles.
Power plants are also not getting required gas to generate electricity.
More than three dozen gas-fired power plants are now shut as the state-run Petrobangla are supplying only around 802 mmcfd of natural gas to power plants against their 2,420 mmcfd demand.
Residents of different areas in the city are facing acute gas crisis and failing to cook food although they are paying monthly bills to the government, it has been alleged.
The country's natural gas output is currently hovering around 2,717 mmcfd, of which 780 mmcfd is regasified LNG, according to Petrobangla statistics.