Gas crisis till April at least

Gas scarcity is likely to continue till April despite the government's repeated assurance of scaling up gas supply during Ramadan and the irrigation season as one of the two Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRU) will take longer to complete maintenance works.

The Summit-operated FSRU, which re-gasifies the imported liquefied natural gas and supplies to the national grid, was supposed to resume operation after maintenance in the first week of March.

But Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, yesterday said that FSRU is unlikely to resume operation before March 30.

"We import 30 percent of our gas supply. Due to the lack of the FSRU, we have a shortfall of 10 percent of gas. Besides, our local gas production is also in decline," he told journalists after a meeting with the government officials of different companies related to the gas and fuel supply.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Ayesha Aziz Khan, the managing director and chief executive officer of Summit Power International, wrote: "We are pleased to see the dry-docking procedure of Summit's first FSRU at the Seatrium Benoi Yard, Singapore."

This FSRU, with a storage capacity of 136,000 cubic metres and a regasification capacity of 500 mmcfd, is being overhauled and restored to a brand new condition.

It will reach Moheshkhali by April, the post added.

Two FSRUs had been supplying around 850 million cubic feet of gas a day (Mmmcfd) until October last year when the Excelerate-operated FSRU went into maintenance and the supply dropped to 500mmcfd.

In mid-January, both the FSRUs were disconnected from the grid due to technical glitches. Consumers in Dhaka, Chattogram, Narayanganj and Gazipur faced a week of gas supply disruptions and many industries did not get gas. Households also faced acute crises over the week.

Later on January 20, the Excelerate FSRU resumed operation but the gas supply didn't increase proportionately as the Summit-run FSRU started going into maintenance.

Yesterday, the total gas supply was around 2,600 mmcfd against the demand of over 3,800mmcfd. Three out of six fertiliser factories were shut due to gas shortages.

City dwellers in different areas are unable to cook Sehri at midnight and have been experiencing gas shortages before Iftar too.

"Gas crisis has become a part of life," said Sadekon Nahar Dilruba, a resident of Khilgaon.

During the daytime, gas pressure is very low, she said, adding that the pressure increased after 1:00am on the first and second days of Ramadan and again dried out before 4:00am.

"I struggle a lot to cook Sehri and Iftar, but I have to pay a gas bill of Tk 1,080 for two stoves every month," she added.

Asked about the solution for people like Sadekon, Hamid said: "There is an option for household consumers and I will request those who have a gas shortage in their areas to use LPG (bottled liquefied petroleum gas) as an alternate solution."

At the meeting, two decisions were taken to keep the gas and power supply situation at a bearable level: the CNG refuelling stations will be kept closed for six hours (4:00pm to 10pm) a day and the schedule of irrigation pumps will be from 12am to 6:00am every day.

However, centring on Eid-ul-Fitr, from April 7 to 18, the gas stations will remain open 24 hours.

About the electricity supply, Hamid said if the fuel supply stays uninterrupted, the electricity supply will be uninterrupted during Ramadan.

"The power cuts will only happen for a short time," he said.

Yesterday, the load-shedding was over 500 megawatts across the country at around 3.00pm. The production was around 11,400MW against the demand of 11,900MW.

The power sector was getting 880mmcfd of gas against the demand of over 1,900mmcfd.