Streamlining national grid gas supply

There might have been another bout of power grid collapse due to gas supply crisis if the production glitch at Bibiyana gas field had continued for a couple of hours more. Fortunately, the situation could be tackled within a few hours of the forced outage.
The country suffered a blackout owing to disruption in power supply system on November 01, 2014. People can consider themselves lucky over the fact that they did not have to suffer more due to the Bibiyana shutdown caused by a wrong alarm.
Even after letting upstream operator Chevron produce generously from Bibiyana gas field, the security of supply on the part of the Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL)-operated national gas grid remains vulnerable. The unbundled mid-stream gas transmission company, compelled to make huge investment in building the largest and the most expensive gas transmission pipeline (Bibiyana-Dhanua) in a hostile terrain, might soon be seriously financially strained.
A gas grid may collapse in the event of any technical glitch and forced outage. Bibiyana, set to produce above 1000 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) for gas grid, has a maximum capacity of delivering about 2500 mmcfd now.  Gas grid simulation shows that Bibiyana-Dhanua pipeline will have marginal impact on the national gas grid except improving the pressure of a segment of Titas Gas Franchise area. It will rather adversely impact on the operational flexibility of GTCL-operated Ashuganj Compressor Station and make the Elenga Compressor Station a bad investment. The crisis-prone Chittagong and south-east Bangladesh will continue to suffer chronic gas crises in absence of the Bakhrabad-Chittagong Loop Line.
The policymakers have opted for a special 'indemnity act' for procuring very expensive pipelines from a selected vendor without tender for a limited-utility pipeline, which eventually may remain substantially unutilised for lack of gas supply. To the scribe, a career gas professional, this appears to be a technical jugglery. Bibiyana without Bibiyana-Dhanua pipeline was delivering about 800 mmcfd to North South Pipeline Corridor. This was barely enough to get the Ashuganj Compressor Station (another expensive element of GTCL system) to operate at design capacity.
The power plants adjacent to Bibiyana Gas Field will require about 200 mmcfd gas in at least 25 years of its designed life-time. The Bibiyana-Dhanua pipeline will have the capacity of transporting about 700 mmcfd gas. We were sure that while preparing the Public Communications Policy (PCP), the pipeline capacity supply was in view in the computing of IRR (internal rate of return) and ERR (economic rate of return). From where will come the required gas? Why was GTCL made to invest in a limited-utility expensive pipeline, which for its very aggressive and mostly inaccessible nature of pipeline rights-of-way (ROW) will create operational nightmares?
GTCL is mandated to operate any and all high pressure gas transmission pipelines and deliver gas to any end-users. Any section of transmission pipeline in Bangladesh remains open-access and GTCL is mandated a wheeling charge (Transmission Tariff). As a Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC)-regulated gas utility, GTCL has the right to ask for wheeling charge adjustment for any new transmission facility required to transport genuinely stranded gas to a potential downstream market. Has GTCL been awarded higher wheeling charges for several new pieces of transmission elements? Will it be justice to burden a mid-stream company with huge additional investment and no additional source of supply to operate the new transmission segments to capacity?
GTCL over the last few years has implemented the following projects:
* Compressor Stations at Ashuganj and Elenga
* Bakhrabad-Siddhirganj Gas Transmission Loop Line
* Bibiyana-Dhanua Loop Line
* Gas transmission pipeline on Bonpara - Ishwardi - Bheramara - Kushtia -Jessore -Khulna (The Padma River Crossing Outstanding).
* Ashuganj-Bakhrabad Loop Line (Some sections need to be completed)
The gas system's security of supply remains vulnerable even after forcing GTCL into making a huge investment. The gas supply situation in Chittagong may not improve at all until import of LNG (Liquefied natural gas) is possible in the next two to three years. Diversion of a significant volume of gas from Bibiyana will create continued operational issues for Ashuganj and Elenga Compressor Stations. Inoperative SCADA system of GTCL will create chaos in gas grid crisis management. Any operational glitch in Bibiyana gas field will trigger power grid crisis, and also disruptions over the entire gas franchise. What is the contingency planning of the gas system management?
International oil companies (IOCs) operate gas fields under the PSC. The production sharing contract (PSC) authorises them to develop their gas fields making them capable of producing @ 7 ½ per cent of Ultimate Recoverable Reserve. But Petrobangla on behalf of the host government has to approve any development plan and enter into gas purchase and sale agreement (GPSA). With bitter experiences of Bakhrabad and Shangu, Petrobangla should have reviewed the Gas Reserve Updates of Bibiyana field by an independent assessor appointed by itself. It was definitely not wise to impose a huge financial burden on an otherwise very competent Petrobangla company, GTCL, for placating an IOC and its well-wishers. GTCL's backbone will be seriously harmed in absorbing the huge investments in some pieces of limited-utility transmission segments.
The writer whose full name is Enginner Khondkar Abdus Saleque, worked for 27 years in Bangladesh gas sector from 1978 -2005. His last assignment in Bangladesh was Director [Operation] GTCL. He is now working as Energy Specialist for an US Company AEAI [USAID Contractor] in Afghanistan.
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