Gas crisis persists for second day

The gas crisis that started suddenly on Sunday persisted in many parts of Dhaka city and elsewhere in Bangladesh for the second day on Monday, also the second day of Ramadan, badly affecting people’s life and the production in especially export-oriented industries.

Residents in Motijheel, Kalyanpur, Mirpur, Jatrabari, South Goran, Tikatuli and Demra in the capital complained about continued gas crisis for the second consecutive day as the supply from the country’s largest gas field at Bibiyana fell sharply due to emergency maintenance works.

The Bibiyana Gas Field, having a 1,200mmfcd capacity, supplied 886.9mmfcd gas to the national grid on April 3 while the country’s total gas production was 2,524.4 mmfcd on the day, including 501mmfcd imported liquefied natural gas, according to the statistics provided by state-owned Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation alias Petrobangla.

The total gas supply capacity of the country a day is 3,760 mmfcd, including LNG. 

Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Md Jashim Uddin told New Age that the production was badly hampered in many factories due to the gas crisis in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj.

‘My five factories located at Savar have been out of operation since today [Monday] morning. Many factories are trying to run on diesel but there was no option but closing the dyeing and washing units as these cannot operate without gas,’ he added.

The FBCCI president said that the government should have informed them of what exactly happened in the Bibiyana gas field.

‘The government is not saying anything clearly about the crisis in the month of Ramadan when the export-oriented factories are under huge pressure of orders,’ he further said.   

He also resented that the government was not importing enough LNG on account of high price. 

‘The situation would not improve without importing LNG,’ he said.   

Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, a resident at Jatrabari, said on Monday afternoon that his family could neither prepare iftar on the first day of Ramadan nor cook the sahri for the second fasting day.

‘We are yet to receive gas. It is uncertain if we can prepare iftar for today as well,’ he added.

He further said that it hurt them to spend extra money on alternative source of cooking or buying food from restaurants.

Mohammad Babu, a Mirpur-12 resident, said that he was not able to fast on Monday due to the gas problem.

‘Gas has returned on Monday afternoon, but the pressure is too low to cook food,’ he added.

His family, he further said, is also unsure if they would get gas for preparing sahri for Tuesday fasting.

A resident at Gandaria also said that though gas returned to their stove on Monday afternoon the pressure was too low.

Residents of Rampura said that gas supply resumed on Sunday night but stopped again at 3:00pm on Monday. The supply restarted after 6:00pm on the day.

Earlier on Sunday, Petrobangla chair Nazmul Ahsan said that sand was found in one of the wells of the Bibiyana gas field on Saturday night, adding that the well is connected to six other wells. 

He said on Monday that Petrobangla was forced to lower gas supply for domestic, industrial and power-production uses after the Bibiyana field started supplying 420mmfcd less gas, creating an adverse impact. ‘Chevron told me to cut 420mmfcd supply. I said it would be impossible. They replied that if you do not shut the affected six wells, the entire system of the Bibiyana field will collapse, closing the production of the whole 1,200mmfcd,’ he added.

Chevron has, meanwhile, fixed one well, Nazmul said, recovering 70mmfcd, hoping to fix at least two more wells by Monday night.

He said that the situation would improve on Tuesday.    

‘Many industries are not receiving gas due to the low pressure. An LNG-filled ship is scheduled to arrive by April 7 and the situation would further improve then,’ he went on to say. 

The Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited in an emergency notification on Sunday said that emergency maintenance works at the Chevron-operated Bibiyana gas field led to gas shortages in various areas.

The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources in a press release on Sunday also said that an emergency maintenance job in the Bibiyana gas field had disrupted the production in gas-fired power plants.

The crisis may also disrupt the electric supply to different areas, according to the release.

The ministry hoped that the situation would return to normal soon, expressing its regret to people for their inconvenience.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/167236/gas-crisis-persists-for-second-day