Govt mulls mega LPG bottling plant

The government is going ahead with a plan for establishing a mega plant for bottling, supplying and marketing of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to ease the ever increasing household demand for natural gas.
With an annual capacity of bottling of 100,000 tonnes of LPG, the plant will be established under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) at Kumira or any other suitable place in Chittagong district.
Besides bottling, the plant will have jetty and pipeline for getting supply of LPG and tank for its storage.
Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Division of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Abu Bakar Siddique told BSS Saturday that the initiative had already been taken to appoint a consultant for the project.
Already, he said the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved in principle the proposal of the Energy Ministry to set up the LPG bottling plant under the PPP.
According to the proposal, the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will set up the plant under PPP involving Tk 2.48 billion. It will also need Tk 220.80 million for development of 10 acres of land. The plant will require a working capital of Tk 781 million in the first year besides the project cost.
The plant will import LPG from Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait for bottling.
"If we set up the LPG bottling plant, it will help reduce the dependency on the traditional piped gas supply and also meet the demand for LPG gas," Mr Siddique added.
Currently, 100,000 tonnes of LPG in bottles are being marketed by public and private companies against the annual demand of 500,000 tonnes.
Of the 100,000 tonnes, two state-owned plants - one at Patenga in Chittagong and another at Koilashtila in Sylhet - are sourcing 20,000 tonnes of bottled LPG a year. The remaining 80,000 tonnes of LPG is being imported and bottled by a number of private companies.
Energy experts along with the development partners like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggested that the country should set up LPG bottling plant to meet the household gas demand while ensuring productive use of the gas reserve.
The piped gas also covers only 8-10 per cent of total households in the country.