Anisul Islam Noor :
The deficit in the natural gas supply increased to 500mmcfd to 800mmcfd (50 crore cubic feet to 80 crore) in the country in last eight years.
The deficit widened despite imposing embargo on new gas connection to the households, CNG stations and industries. In view of the gas supply crunch, the country witnessed an investment crisis.
Around three thousand applications have been pending with different gas distribution entities since 2012 due to ban on industrial gas connection.
During this time, several lakh applications were piled in the gas distribution entities following ban on the household gas connection. But 2.5 lakh illegal gas connections were provided in the capital and its nearby areas by malpractice with some dishonest employees of gas distribution entities.
Experts said that the government’s initiative to increase gas supply was not realistic and many of the plans had just papers work. When asked about the deficit of gas crisis, Nasrul Hamid, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, said that recent crisis of gas started because of various reasons. He said, “Gradual decrease in our gas reserve is one of the main reasons. We have to think about alternative options of pipeline based gas service. That is why we are planning to encourage the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). We think that we will be able to bring 70 percent people under the LP gas service within next three years. The government will restructure the price of LP gas.” Promoting LP gas service is certainly a good initiative, as the reserve of total gas of the country is reducing quickly, said M. Tamim, Professor of BUET.
According to the sources, natural gas production began in 1960 from the Chhatak filed.
Bangladesh has discovered 26 gas fields till today. Among them, 20 gas fields are now in operation.
The country has already consumed about half of the proven gas reserve 27.12 trillion cubic feet (tcf) since then.
“There are no real probabilities of finding more gas fields in Bangladesh. If the current rate of gas consumption continues, we will be able to use gas in our country till 2031,” Professor Tamim said.
Energy experts opined that total use of gas increases 10 percent every year. As a result, use of gas will increase day by day. The government will not discourage the current process of industrialization. According to this calculation, we will be able to use gas only for the next 10 years.
Searching for new gas blocks in the deep sea and collecting gas from there is a demand of time, said Mohammad Tamim, Professor of BUET
A survey conducted by Petrobangla and The United States Geological Survey (USGS) indicated pressure of a large amount of gas reserve there. Another study conducted in 2001 said that there might be a reserve of 8.8 tcf gas in the Bay of Bengal.
Professor Anu Muhammad said that the decision of using CNG in three wheelers and private vehicles was not a visionary step at all. People buy cars at more than a crore of taka and run it on CNG. Use of gas in private vehicles should be stopped. The government has to take stern action against the illegal connections of gas. “We have seen that many officials of Titas Gas have become millionaire, but the government or anti-corruption commission has not taken any step against them,” he said.
