Al Amin :
The gas-based industrial units will suffer a big setback if Bangladesh fails to explore new natural gas fields within five to six years, said experts and economists.
The country may also lose energy security if it increases dependency on imported gas, they said.
The industries including textile and readymade garment factories, power plants and fertiliser factories mostly use natural gas to run their production and they are key wheels of the country’s economic growth.
“Dependency on imported gas, which is very complicated and expensive, will increase, if we are not able to explore any source of natural gas immediately,” Dr Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank Dhaka office, told The New Nation on Tuesday.
“Without any delay and dependent on existing gas exploration authority, the government should engage with the companies, who have experience, financial ability, management capacity and technologies, to find out new gas fields across the country, especially in off shore area,” the economist opined.
He further said all the industries, which are highly dependent on gas will remain at risk and Bangladesh may lose energy security, if we fail to explore new gas sources.
There are huge opportunities to explore gas in off shore area as Myanmar and India have already succeeded, he said.
As per the 2009 estimates by the UK-based RPS Energy Limited and lately discovered fields’ forecast, the recoverable proved and probable reserves in the 27 commercial gas fields in the country were 29.54 trillion cubic feet.
Meanwhile, Petrobangla’s data show that around 20 trillion cubic feet of the total reserves were extracted by 2021, which means the country will be able to produce natural gas for only the next 10 years as the existing commercial gas fields produce around 900 billion cubic feet of gas every year.
The country has more than 1,500 textile mills, including spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finishing units that are dependent on gas. On the other hand, the largest fertilizer factory in Asia is being set up at Palash in Narsingdi, under the Ghorashal-Palash Urea Fertilizer Factory project. It is a “mega project” of the present government, taken to increase the production of urea fertilizer and the plant is completely dependent on gas.
Besides, many power plants and other industries, which are fully dependent of natural gas, are being set up in the country to accelerate the economic growth.
Natural gas exploration expert and geologist Prof Badrul Imam said if new gas fields are not discovered, the country will face an economic disruption ahead.
“Our total industrial infrastructure is built on gas. So, the supply crisis due to reserve depletion might create a big disruption to the economy,” he said.
“If we start now, probably, we could get some fields with good reserves by next six years,” he added.
Mohammad Ali Khokon, President of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), said investment in this sector amounts to more than $6 billion and another investment of $2.5 billion is underway.
“So, the sector will be severely affected if new natural gas is not being explored immediately,” Khokon said.
Gas exploration authorities, however, said sensing the future energy crisis, they are taking multilayer work plans to increase the domestic gas supply.
Nazmul Ahsan, Chairman of Petrobangla, said that they are now going to the hill areas in search of gas alongside conducting exploration work in plain land and off-shore areas.
