Gas crisis caused by glitch in LNG terminal, situation to improve within 2-3 days: Official

A technical fault in one of the country’s two LNG terminals has caused an abrupt shortage in gas supply across the country, but the situation would likely improve within 2-3 days, officials said on Wednesday.

Due to the glitch in the floating terminal, daily gas supply has fallen by 450 million cubic feet, said Monir Hossain Chowhdury, joint secretary and spokesperson at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.

The crisis has resulted in long queues at refueling stations for CNG-run auto-rickshaws, and also disrupted supply to power plants, industrial units and households in different parts of the country, he noted.

Hopefully, the situation would improve within 2-3 days as repair works are ongoing, said Monir Hossain.

The gas crisis is not affecting the supply of oil and the movement of oil-run vehicles, he said.

He blamed the gas crisis on the disproportionate dependence on LNG imports pursued by the ousted Awami League regime. Despite the country having sufficient underground reserves of natural gas, the Awami regime chose not to extract them to meet domestic demand, Monir Hossain said.