Acute gas crisis takes the lid off LNG vulnerabilities
We are worried about the acute gas crisis that has followed the shutdown of an LNG regasification terminal in Cox's Bazar's Moheshkhali after being damaged by Cyclone Remal. According to a report by this daily, the crisis has plagued many households, factories, and vehicles running on compressed natural gas (CNG). For many residents in Dhaka and elsewhere, cooking has become a daily struggle. The situation is no better for the industrial sector, where factory closures and operational disruptions have resulted in significant economic losses and job insecurity for thousands of workers. Meanwhile, CNG filling stations have been overwhelmed with long queues of cars and auto-rickshaws. The power supply in rural areas has worsened as well.
Reportedly, the two-week-long crisis will continue for some more time as the damaged LNG unit—which reduced our LNG supply by almost half, and was taken to a dry dock abroad for repairs—is not expected to be back for another two weeks. That means more outages, more disruptions, and more sufferings. The Moheshkhali unit is one of the two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) in Bangladesh that convert LNG, or liquefied natural gas, back to gas before supplying it to the national grid. While the present crisis has again brought into focus the country's poor LNG import/supply infrastructure—it was only recently that we commented on the risk of surplus LNG regasification capacity as well as gas compressor stations lying idle amid insufficient supply—it also exposed deeper systemic issues surrounding our energy policy.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. 
At the heart of it is the over-reliance on imported LNG amid dwindling local gas reserves. As experts have repeatedly said, a short-term, small-scale dependence on LNG import is reasonable, but tying it with our long-term energy future is not sustainable. Yet this is what the government has been doing, and doing rather poorly as it cannot pay for the costly import thanks to the dollar crisis. What we need to focus and indeed invest more on is diversifying our energy sources so as not to be so vulnerable to economic and natural shocks like Cyclone Remal. That, right now, should start with exploring local gas, including the 48 gas wells that the government flagged for exploration in three years. We should also invest more on renewable energy sources which haven't yet got the traction they deserve.
So, while we call on the government to do everything necessary to address the present gas crisis, we should also keep an eye on the future. Exploring and extracting local gas must be a priority going forward, and the national budget must reflect that priority before it is passed. The government should also work on our vulnerable energy supply/distribution infrastructure, which is seldom discussed despite the sufferings it has caused in recent years.
Comments