THE supply of gas has reduced to almost zero, as residents complain, in many areas of the capital city. Industries in neighbouring areas also make similar complaints. Whilst households in areas such as Badda, Central Road, Gendaria, Kanthal Bagan, Mirpur, Mohammadpur and Rampura complain that they receive almost no gas during the day time and for a good part of the night, forcing many to eat out or buy food at restaurants, industries complain of having been forced to run to less than capacity. Households get weak flow round the year which many believe prompts consumers to resort to unethical means for their share of gas. The owner of a factory in Gazipur says that it has a pipeline to receive gas at 150 pounds per square inch, but it receives gas at 1 or 2 pounds per square inch. The poor situation of gas supply also constitutes injustice to consumers in that people who use supply gas continue to pay a fixed price based on an assumed monthly consumption irrespective of whether they received the volume of gas that they are meant to receive and regardless of the pressure of gas in the supply line.

The state-owned Petrobangla says that that it is running to its maximum capacity, the best supply in years this December, noting that there would be no improvement in the situation until February. The situation may worsen once the winter is over, with the demand likely to increase by at least 70 per cent. Petrobangla supplied 851.5mmcfd of gas — 851.5mmcfd for power production, meeting only 34 per cent of the demand, and 204.8mmcfd for fertiliser production against the demand for 329mmcfd — in 24 hours ending in the morning on December 24. The demand was, however, officially estimated to be 4,000mmcfd. Winter is the time when the government feed gas into fertiliser production as the demand for power declines because of cold weather, with the supply for fertiliser having increased by about 80mmcfd compared with the summer-time supply for the sector. There have also been speculations that the government wants households to switch to liquefied petroleum gas. Many households having used supply gas switching to liquefied petroleum gas as an alternative energy source lends credence to the proposition. After the government stopped giving gas connections to households in 2010, liquefied petroleum gas import increased to a million tonnes in 2020 from only 60,000 tonnes a decade ago. Yet, the government has largely been dependent on gas for energy for decades amidst poor exploration. The gas fields discovered have run dry and are close to stopping production. The government of the Awami League, overthrown on August 5, has increased gas prices several times between 2019 and 2023, with the price on one occasion having been increased by about 180 per cent for industries. But the supply has not improved.

All this hints at flaws in the energy policy that has held back the gas production and management. The government should overhaul the energy policy to improve gas supply whilst it gets down to hydrocarbon exploration.

News Link: Govt should overhaul energy policy to increase gas supply