Almost three months have elapsed — when American giant Excelerate Energy’s floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) ‘Excellence’ anchored at Moheshkhali outer sea on April 23 carrying 0.65 million tons liquid gas from Qatar. The government being happy, at that time claimed that-Bangladesh entered the era of LNG. We hoped that, the imported LNG will be taken to the main terminal by lighter ships and it would be distributed through national grid line within mid-May. What we are seeing now– the floating terminal could not be connected with national gridline till the date.
The reason is not yet cleared by Petrobangla for the unexpected delay. But it has caused immense trouble to the industrial sector — particularly, fertilizer factories and economic zones. The industrialists who have invested a huge amount of money hoping that they would get gas connection by April are now passing their days in utmost anxiety. The authorities concerned could not ensure when the LNG would be supplied through national grid.
Due to the delay, Petrobangla will also have to suffer a huge loss. The liquid gas is vaporizing through the leakage of the pipeline. The Excelerate Energy, which has got contract to fix the pipeline with national grid, is now showing unusual excuses, including faulty pipe and high tide. They said it would not possible for them to fix the pipeline if the high tide continues in the Bay of Bengal.
For years, Bangladesh has been suffering from two crippling energy shortages: electricity and gas. The grid based power shortages result in load-shedding and expensive diesel generation. Side by side, the residential, CNG, industrial and power users — all struggle to access as much gas as required. The domestic gas has already started to decline and pipeline pressure in the big cities is frequently very low.
The introduction of LNG into the fuel mix is a critical step in overcoming the present energy crisis. It also becomes more difficult when country is facing shortage of local technical expertise.
We hope the uncertainly over LNG would be ended very soon and the government will take befitting step to get a positive result in this regard.
