Gas crisis to start improving next week: State minister

The countrywide shortage of gas will start easing from next week, and the situation would completely normalise in the following week, said Aninda Islam Amit, state minister for power energy and mineral resources, on Monday.

Addressing a briefing at the Secretariat, the state minister expressed in “earnest” his regret on behalf of the government for the temporary public sufferings caused by the crisis.

He clarified that a private company rather than the government was responsible for the crisis, and added that the government officials were coordinating with the company in resolving the issues.

He repeatedly expressed his regret for his failure to address the crisis promptly.

The gas crisis started last week and has gradually worsened, Aninda Islam Amit told reporters at the briefing.

It started after an explosion at the boiler of one of the two LNG terminals of the country, and repair works are continuing with government assistance. Following government orders, necessary equipment and spare parts have been imported at the Chattogram sea port and are awaiting unloading, the energy state minister said.

Excelerate Energy, which operates the affected LNG terminal, initially thought that they could fix the technical glitch within a day. However, 48 hours passed, and they still could not offer a solution, prompting the government to ask that they bring in foreign professionals, Aninda Islam Amit said.

The company authorities honoured the request and flew in experts from the UK and the US, the state minister added.

Next week the LNG terminal will return to 50% capacity, and full capacity will be restored the following week, he hoped.

The current gas demand is 3,800 million cubic feet per day, but the supply is only around 2,700 million cubic feet, around 1,600 million cubic feet of which is produced domestically from underground reserves.

The rest are imported in the form of LNG.

The state minister blamed the huge demand-supply gap on the corrupt policies of the Awami League government, which consistently prioritised swift solutions for over 15 years and ignored long-term plans to pocket illegal money.

The current government has adopted short-, medium- and long-term plans for permanently resolving the country’s energy crisis, the state minister added.