Bangladesh

Titas Gas sinks further in red on system loss

New MD pledges to bring down gas leakages
Titas gas's losses swell

Titas Gas's system loss hit a decade high of 1,204 million cubic meters in fiscal 2023-24 -- enough to meet a month's import bill of high-priced liquified natural gas (LNG).

Gas unaccounted for because of illegal connections, leakages from old or corroded distribution lines, pipeline damages caused by underground work of utility services, lack of information regarding actual gas use by non-metered customers, and measurement errors in intake points are counted as system loss.

Last fiscal year, Titas, the country's largest piped gas distributor, saw a system loss of 7.67 percent -- way past the acceptable 2 percent mark, according to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission.

This was worth about Tk 2,945 crore, which is enough to meet a month's LNG import bill.

Subsequently, the once-profitable company's losses more than trebled from a year earlier to Tk 744.08 crore in fiscal 2023-24, according to its latest annual report.

"Our first priority is to bring down the system loss," said Shahnewaz Parvez, managing director of Titas Gas since September 10 last year.

System loss can be brought down in two ways: removing illegal connections and replacing the old distribution pipelines.

Most of the pipelines of Titas were installed in 1968-69 and have leaks in many places, he told The Daily Star.

Titas Gas, which accounts for two-thirds of the gas distributed in Bangladesh, has prepared the tender documents to replace the pipelines in Dhaka and Narayanganj. The tender will be floated next month.

"We will need overground and underground detectors to identify the leakages in pipelines. Then we will replace those pipelines under small clusters through the tender process," he said, adding that the small leakages will be resolved immediately.

However, it will not be possible to replace the pipelines that are below 6-7 meters underground.

"We will try to install new pipelines there."

Titas Gas has 35 vigilance teams that conduct drives regularly to remove illegal connections.

"We are trying as per our capacity. There are syndicates consisting of locals, contractors and some workers of Titas itself. We are identifying them."

Titas has ramped up its drive after the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources recently got its own executive magistrate.

"We have an area-wise routine for conducting drives. We are focusing on the illegal pipelines connected to the industries as those consume much higher volumes of gas -- sometimes 2,000 more than a household user," Parvez said.

Since September last year, Titas's vigilance teams have removed about 100 kilometres of illegal pipelines in Keraniganj, Kamrangirchar, Munshiganj, Narayanganj, Savar, Tongi, Gazipur, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Gulshan, Mymensingh, Meghnaghat and Narsingdi.

Last fiscal year, about 2.5 lakh illegal connections were snapped, down from 3.27 lakh connections a year earlier, according to Titas's annual report. About 420 km of illegal pipelines were removed, up from 390 km in fiscal 2022-23.

Connections to 110 industrial, 186 commercial, 54 captive and four CNG stations were disconnected in those drives.

Legalising the existing illegal connections would help reduce system loss and increase Titas's revenue, Parvez said.

"It's like whitening the black money."

For example, some households have legal connections for two to three burners but use the line for 10 to 12 connections.

"We couldn't charge for the extra use. If we legalise those connections, we could charge them," he said, adding that the policymakers have to make a call on this. The company has about 30 lakh customers at present.

To reduce gas theft, enforcement of the law should be strengthened.

For instance, the Gas Act has the provision to jail a person for illegal gas use. But this provision is never enforced.

"If we can set examples in some areas, illegal gas use may come down. Besides, we face obstacles from the locals. There have been some incidents where people attacked our staffers and officials. We only file regular cases against them but there are hardly any examples of due penalty," Parvez said.

Ijaz Hossain, former dean of engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said theft, with the help of Titas officials, is the main cause of system loss, although some leakages do take place due to old pipelines.

"Some set up pipelines at night -- strict actions should be taken against them. Besides, we do not have proper metering systems in many places. Meters should be installed in the offtake points to identify the places where most of the losses take place."

Besides, replacing the old pipelines is one of the major ways to reduce system loss, Hossain added.

Comments

Titas Gas sinks further in red on system loss

New MD pledges to bring down gas leakages
Titas gas's losses swell

Titas Gas's system loss hit a decade high of 1,204 million cubic meters in fiscal 2023-24 -- enough to meet a month's import bill of high-priced liquified natural gas (LNG).

Gas unaccounted for because of illegal connections, leakages from old or corroded distribution lines, pipeline damages caused by underground work of utility services, lack of information regarding actual gas use by non-metered customers, and measurement errors in intake points are counted as system loss.

Last fiscal year, Titas, the country's largest piped gas distributor, saw a system loss of 7.67 percent -- way past the acceptable 2 percent mark, according to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission.

This was worth about Tk 2,945 crore, which is enough to meet a month's LNG import bill.

Subsequently, the once-profitable company's losses more than trebled from a year earlier to Tk 744.08 crore in fiscal 2023-24, according to its latest annual report.

"Our first priority is to bring down the system loss," said Shahnewaz Parvez, managing director of Titas Gas since September 10 last year.

System loss can be brought down in two ways: removing illegal connections and replacing the old distribution pipelines.

Most of the pipelines of Titas were installed in 1968-69 and have leaks in many places, he told The Daily Star.

Titas Gas, which accounts for two-thirds of the gas distributed in Bangladesh, has prepared the tender documents to replace the pipelines in Dhaka and Narayanganj. The tender will be floated next month.

"We will need overground and underground detectors to identify the leakages in pipelines. Then we will replace those pipelines under small clusters through the tender process," he said, adding that the small leakages will be resolved immediately.

However, it will not be possible to replace the pipelines that are below 6-7 meters underground.

"We will try to install new pipelines there."

Titas Gas has 35 vigilance teams that conduct drives regularly to remove illegal connections.

"We are trying as per our capacity. There are syndicates consisting of locals, contractors and some workers of Titas itself. We are identifying them."

Titas has ramped up its drive after the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources recently got its own executive magistrate.

"We have an area-wise routine for conducting drives. We are focusing on the illegal pipelines connected to the industries as those consume much higher volumes of gas -- sometimes 2,000 more than a household user," Parvez said.

Since September last year, Titas's vigilance teams have removed about 100 kilometres of illegal pipelines in Keraniganj, Kamrangirchar, Munshiganj, Narayanganj, Savar, Tongi, Gazipur, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Gulshan, Mymensingh, Meghnaghat and Narsingdi.

Last fiscal year, about 2.5 lakh illegal connections were snapped, down from 3.27 lakh connections a year earlier, according to Titas's annual report. About 420 km of illegal pipelines were removed, up from 390 km in fiscal 2022-23.

Connections to 110 industrial, 186 commercial, 54 captive and four CNG stations were disconnected in those drives.

Legalising the existing illegal connections would help reduce system loss and increase Titas's revenue, Parvez said.

"It's like whitening the black money."

For example, some households have legal connections for two to three burners but use the line for 10 to 12 connections.

"We couldn't charge for the extra use. If we legalise those connections, we could charge them," he said, adding that the policymakers have to make a call on this. The company has about 30 lakh customers at present.

To reduce gas theft, enforcement of the law should be strengthened.

For instance, the Gas Act has the provision to jail a person for illegal gas use. But this provision is never enforced.

"If we can set examples in some areas, illegal gas use may come down. Besides, we face obstacles from the locals. There have been some incidents where people attacked our staffers and officials. We only file regular cases against them but there are hardly any examples of due penalty," Parvez said.

Ijaz Hossain, former dean of engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said theft, with the help of Titas officials, is the main cause of system loss, although some leakages do take place due to old pipelines.

"Some set up pipelines at night -- strict actions should be taken against them. Besides, we do not have proper metering systems in many places. Meters should be installed in the offtake points to identify the places where most of the losses take place."

Besides, replacing the old pipelines is one of the major ways to reduce system loss, Hossain added.

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