Govts' indecision on exploring sources 'causes present energy crisis'
Sunday, 26 April 2009
M Azizur Rahman
Governments' apathy to exploring commercial primary energy sources like oil, gas and coal over the past decade has resulted in the country's current perennial energy crunch and is stunting its potential growth prospects, officials said.
The successive governments suffered from indecision and complacency over the energy supply and reserve scenario that put the country's energy sector developments on hold.
For oil and gas exploration the country signed the latest production-sharing contract (PSC) with international oil companies (IOCs) in July 2001, acting Chairman of Petrobangla Muqtadir Ali told the FE.
Since then not a single PSC was signed with any foreign company, said Ali, who is also the Petrobangla director on PSC.
The IOCs that signed PSCs with Petrobangla after the country's two bidding rounds for hydrocarbon exploration across the country also remained idle for long mainly due to wrong signal about the market demand, a senior official of an IOC said.
The IOCs did not carry out exploration activities on the ground of the country's lacking in 'potential market.'
The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX) was also virtually inactive in hydrocarbon exploration due to fund constraints.
The country's latest contract for coalmine development was signed with the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) as lead partner of a consortium in February 1994 for the country's lone operational Barapukuria coalmine project.
Since then the successive governments only awarded licences to several local and foreign companies to carry out feasibility studies of some coal mines, a senior official of the Bureau of Mineral Development (BMD) said.
As a result the country began to feel the pinch of energy crisis since a couple of years back, which now turned out to severe.
"The previous governments were in a complacent mood over the country's future energy security that pushed them to indecision about development of new oil and gas fields," energy expert M Tamim said.
Tamim, who was special assistant to the Chief Adviser of the caretaker government, said the value of coal was never assessed properly in the country.
It was erroneously assumed that the country's entire future energy security would be met by clean energy or natural gas, said Mr Tamim.
Former Petrobangla director on mines and minerals Muinul Ahsan said the country has reserves of around 2.90 billion tonnes of quality coal in five mines spread over the northern region.
The quantity of coal that the country has can easily meet the demand for at least 40 years, he said.
Petrobangla in its projection in February 2007 stated that the country would need a further 24 Tcf of gas and investment worth $7.7 billion in the next 16 years to maintain a moderate economic growth rate of 7.0 per cent.
At current consumption rates, the country's proven gas reserves of 8.39 Tcf will start drying up from 2011, and if proven and probable reserves of around 14.4 Tcf are taken together, the country's gas resources would be emptied by 2015, it said.
Currently, the country produces around 1185 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) against the demand for over 2050 mmcfd.
Coal production is limited to only 2,000-3,000 tonnes a day from the country's lone operational Barapukuria coalmine in northern Dinajpur.
Governments' apathy to exploring commercial primary energy sources like oil, gas and coal over the past decade has resulted in the country's current perennial energy crunch and is stunting its potential growth prospects, officials said.
The successive governments suffered from indecision and complacency over the energy supply and reserve scenario that put the country's energy sector developments on hold.
For oil and gas exploration the country signed the latest production-sharing contract (PSC) with international oil companies (IOCs) in July 2001, acting Chairman of Petrobangla Muqtadir Ali told the FE.
Since then not a single PSC was signed with any foreign company, said Ali, who is also the Petrobangla director on PSC.
The IOCs that signed PSCs with Petrobangla after the country's two bidding rounds for hydrocarbon exploration across the country also remained idle for long mainly due to wrong signal about the market demand, a senior official of an IOC said.
The IOCs did not carry out exploration activities on the ground of the country's lacking in 'potential market.'
The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX) was also virtually inactive in hydrocarbon exploration due to fund constraints.
The country's latest contract for coalmine development was signed with the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) as lead partner of a consortium in February 1994 for the country's lone operational Barapukuria coalmine project.
Since then the successive governments only awarded licences to several local and foreign companies to carry out feasibility studies of some coal mines, a senior official of the Bureau of Mineral Development (BMD) said.
As a result the country began to feel the pinch of energy crisis since a couple of years back, which now turned out to severe.
"The previous governments were in a complacent mood over the country's future energy security that pushed them to indecision about development of new oil and gas fields," energy expert M Tamim said.
Tamim, who was special assistant to the Chief Adviser of the caretaker government, said the value of coal was never assessed properly in the country.
It was erroneously assumed that the country's entire future energy security would be met by clean energy or natural gas, said Mr Tamim.
Former Petrobangla director on mines and minerals Muinul Ahsan said the country has reserves of around 2.90 billion tonnes of quality coal in five mines spread over the northern region.
The quantity of coal that the country has can easily meet the demand for at least 40 years, he said.
Petrobangla in its projection in February 2007 stated that the country would need a further 24 Tcf of gas and investment worth $7.7 billion in the next 16 years to maintain a moderate economic growth rate of 7.0 per cent.
At current consumption rates, the country's proven gas reserves of 8.39 Tcf will start drying up from 2011, and if proven and probable reserves of around 14.4 Tcf are taken together, the country's gas resources would be emptied by 2015, it said.
Currently, the country produces around 1185 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) against the demand for over 2050 mmcfd.
Coal production is limited to only 2,000-3,000 tonnes a day from the country's lone operational Barapukuria coalmine in northern Dinajpur.