
Oct 15, 2024
| Emran Hossain | TNA
Only two of the 23 companies enlisted with the state-owned Petrobangla for importing gas from the spot market participated in the tender floated on October 7 for importing liquefied natural gas for the next month.
The Public Procurement Rules require the participation of at least three parties in tender, prompting authorities to go for re-tender for the import on October 14.
But this is not the first time when a tender failed to attract importers. September saw at least one re-tender for importing LNG in October thanks to the unwillingness of the companies enlisted by the past Hasina government to participate in spot-market gas purchase, delaying its import.
This is the first time in about the past 15 years that the incumbent government is trying to implement the Public Procurement Rules to establish transparency in the energy import which after 2010 was done under the controversial indemnity law without bidding.
‘We informed the government about the problem and recommended making changes so that the number of participants in tender does not stand in our way of ensuring gas supply,’ said chairman Petrobangla Zanendra Nath Sarker.
Petrobangla officials said that the enlisted companies blamed the lack of political instability for their unwillingness to invest in the energy sector.
Bangladesh could never ensure adequate supply of energy, not even after the past government invested billions of dollars in the sector, leading to a deepening energy crisis over the last three years despite introduction of the LNG import.
The dollar crisis, which experts view was largely created in the first place by the government’s reliance on imported energy, prevented the government from fully using its LNG import capacity of 1,100mmcfd.
On Tuesday, the Petrobangla’s daily gas generation report showed that the LNG supply stood at 701mmcfd with the overall gas supply, including locally sourced, reaching 2,678.1mmcfd.
Bangladesh’s gas demand is around 4,000mmcfd.
The current LNG supply compared with that in the recent past improved given that the supply at times even dropped to 500mmcfd or less.
On Tuesday, groups of people, including businessmen, thronged the Petrobangla premises, calling for increased gas supply or taking responsibility for their losses, prompting the state-owned corporation to promise that the LNG supply would reach 900mmcfd on October 17 evening.
But the supply is unlikely to sustain for more than two weeks given the enlisted importers’ reluctance to participate in the import.
A re-tender means delay of three weeks in the import, Petrobangla officials said.
The gas crisis at this time of year could bear serious consequences for the country’s agricultural production.
This is the time of year when the power demand starts falling, allowing the government to use its limited supply of gas for the production of fertiliser to store it for use over the rest of the year.
The Prtobangla is increasing fuel supply to the fertiliser factories. On Tuesday, it supplied 203.4mmcfd of gas to fertiliser companies against the demand of 329mmcfd.
In the power sector, the gas supply stood at 914.6mmcfd against the demand of 2,420mmcfd.
Load shedding peaked at 423MW at 1:00am on Tuesday when 12,637MW was produced against the demand of 13,080MW.
Bangladesh’s current installed power generation capacity is 27,791MW.
News Link: Importers’ reluctance may deepen gas crisis