Gas crisis hits consumers hard

A two-week-long gas crisis has been affecting homes, factories, and vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, thanks to a dip in supply following the shutdown of an LNG regasification terminal in Cox's Bazar on May 29.

People in many areas in the capital are finding it difficult to cook at home. Some factories have closed as they could not operate due to low gas pressure. Almost all city CNG filling stations had long queues of vehicles.

Power supply to rural areas worsened as many plants use gas to generate electricity.

The government had planned to produce 17,800 megawatts of power a day during this summer, but it could generate the highest only on April 30-- 16,477MW.

The average production was between 13,000MW and 15,000MW in April-May, according to data of Bangladesh Power Development Board.

Officials attributed this production dearth to a shortage of fuel, which stems from the dollar crunch.

Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (REB), responsible for supplying electricity to rural areas, had to conduct up to 1,100MW of load shedding a day since May 27. The districts of Mymensingh, Tangail, Dhaka, Narayanganj, Narshingdi, and Noakhali experienced the highest power cuts, according to REB.

During Cyclone Remal on May 27, the LNG regasification unit in Moheshkhali of Cox's Bazar was damaged. The unit, operated by Summit Group, was taken to a dry dock abroad last week for repairs, said Summit in a statement on June 5.

The LNG terminal is expected to be brought back in about three weeks, added the statement.

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Gas crisis leaves households, industry on edge

The country gets LNG from two floating storage regasification units (FSRU) having a total capacity to process 1,100 million cubic feet of gas a day (mmcfd). The incident reduced the supply to 600 mmcfd.

Petrobangla can currently supply around 2,600 mmcfd against a demand of 3,800 mmcfd.

The country's local gas production has dropped to 2,039 mmcfd from the yearly average of 2,448 mmcfd in 2016, according to data from January.

The Summit's FSRU only resumed operations in mid-April after undergoing maintenance in Singapore for two and a half months. The gas supply situation in the country had been the same back then and people had to endure gas shortage.

Sabakat Sabri, a college student from the capital's East Shewrapara, said they have been facing an acute gas crisis for about a week.

"We have been living here for 15 years, but we never experienced such a bad gas supply situation," he told The Daily Star.

Sabri said they hardly have gas in the morning. "None of my family members can have breakfast at home before heading out to work. The gas pressure does not improve even around noon. That's why we have lunch late."

He said they started using an electric stove on Sunday.

Visiting five CNG filling stations in the capital over the last couple of days, this correspondent found long queues of cars and CNG-run auto-rickshaws.

At Anudip CNG and LPG Filling Station in Moghbazar, a long queue of vehicles was seen around midnight on Saturday.

Hossen Miah, an auto-rickshaw driver, was waiting for one and a half hours in front of a filling station in Satrasta area around yesterday noon. For the last couple of days, he needed at least two hours to refill.

"Be it day or night, the delay happens. As the gas pressure is low, the CNG cylinder cannot be filled. That's why drivers need to visit the filling stations more than usual," he said.

Farhan Noor, secretary of Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association, said the normal pressure of gas is supposed to be 15 pounds per square inch (psi), but it is now 2 to 3 psi most of the time during the day.

On Saturday, locals in Narayanganj's Siddhirganj demonstrated on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, demanding smooth gas supply.

On June 5, President of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) Mohammad Ali Khokon wrote to the Petrobangla chairman demanding improvement of gas supply to the industrial belts, including Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Gazipur, Maona, Savar, Ashilia, Tongi and Sreepur.

Speaking to The Daily Star yesterday, he said there has been no improvement.

"Hundreds of factories are without gas, causing production loss," he said.

Mohammad Hatem, managing director of MB Knit Fashion Ltd in Fatulla of Narayanganj, said their production was halted for four days last week.

In Savar's Ulail area, Madhumati Tiles Ltd has been closed since June 1 due to lack of gas.

Md Salim Khalifa, general manager (accounts and finance) of the factory, said, "We had been getting gas at 3 to 5 psi for the last one and a half years. But the number reduced to 0.5 psi since the beginning of this month. We had no option but to send all 400 workers on leave."

Abu Saleh Mohammad Khademuddin, manager at the Savar zonal office of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited, said, "In our source supply line, the pressure was supposed to be 50 psi, but it is now around 20psi."

This newspaper could not reach Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker and Titas Gas Managing Director Md Haronur Rashid Mullah for comments. They did not respond to calls yesterday.

An official of Petrobangla, wishing anonymity, said gas supply will not increase this month.

Prof M Shamsul Alam, energy adviser to the Consumers' Association of Bangladesh, said it was expected that gas supply from floating terminals would be disrupted during natural calamities.

"Such a vulnerable infrastructure is not useful for energy security … When an LNG regasification unit stops production, there is no alternate to it," he said.

It is clear that the government is depending on imported LNG rather than exploring local gas, he said, adding that the government has announced plans to explore 48 gas wells in three years. However, there is no reflection of this plan in the proposed budget.

"The government even fails to spend allocations for Gas Development Fund for gas exploration," he added.

Our Savar correspondent also contributed to this report.