A POOR state of the energy sector — where industries almost halve their production, power plants sit idle by the dozens, queues grow longer at filling stations and households wait until midnight to cook meals all because of constraining inadequacy in energy supply, especially gas — has come to be a grim reminder of a bad energy planning of the interim government, which additionally continues to carry the problems in the sector that the Awami League regime left it with. The government failures keep affecting every aspect of life. The daily gas supply report that Petrobangla released on April 27 shows that the overall supply stood at 2,692.2mmcfd against the demand for 4,000mmcfd, meeting only 32.69 of what is estimated needed. The supply is 10 per cent less compared with the supply on the same day a year before. An analysis of Petrobangla reports show that gas production from domestic wells has fallen by 170.9mmcfd amidst a reduced liquefied natural gas import of 159mmcfd, which the government is struggling to attend to because of a dollar shortage.
Gas accounts for 54 per cent of the total energy supply, with other sources being oil, coal and biomass. And, the power sector is the biggest consumer of gas, accounting for 43 per cent of the overall consumption whilst captive power generation consumes 17 per cent of the gas, industries 18 per cent, households 11 per cent, and compressed natural gas and fertiliser production 5 per cent each. On April 27, when the gap between the supply and the demand stood at 1,307.8mmcfd, the day’s gas supply could meet 42 per cent of the demand of the power sector and only 38 per cent of the demand of the fertiliser sector. Industrial consumers, many of which cannot depend on captive power generation because of the supply shortage and many that use gas as raw materials have halved their production, resented low gas pressure, which remains in the ranges of 0–2 pounds per square inch against the standard 15 pounds per square inch. Consumers generally resent the poor or no supply as gas prices have soared in the past few years, more than two times and a half since 2023, without any improvement in the supply situation. What makes all this concerning is that a Petrobangla director says that the situation is unlikely to ease until June when the state-owned agency plans to increase the import of liquefied natural gas.
The government should, therefore, anyhow increase gas supply by importing liquefied natural gas and diverting some gas from other sectors to industries. It could also use oil-based plants more to mitigate the power supply shortage. A further failure could make industries hurtle to a disaster.
