Load shedding improving, gas supply may be normal in two weeks: State minister

State minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid on Sunday said the ongoing load-shedding situation will improve in the next two days and gas supply is likely to be normal in two weeks.

Supply of LNG (liquefied natural gas) from two floating terminals at Moheshkhali has remained suspended for three days in the impact of cyclone Mocha, resulting in low gas supply that hit power and industry sectors as well as household usage. It may take two more weeks to make gas situation normal while load shedding would improve in next two days, Nasrul Hamid said.

The state minister made the remarks while speaking to newspersons at the secretariat in Dhaka.

Customers experienced low pressure of gas in Dhaka and Chattogram in last two days. Gas crisis also disrupted power production, triggering load shedding in major parts of the country, including Dhaka and Chattogram. Dhaka alone saw load shedding for over five hours on Saturday; power outage also hit Sunday.

Nasrul Hamid said one of the two floating terminals was taken to deep sea and it may take 12-15 days to start gas supply from it while supply of LNG would begin soon from another floating terminal and gas situation would improve.

Replying to a query on whether existing load shedding situation would improve, the state minister said not much of impact would remain, but the existing abnormal situation would not last and load shedding situation would improve in next two days.

LNG was imported by two floating terminal and it was supplied to pipeline after re-gasification. 620 cft gas was supplied from these terminals on Friday until gas supply was halted at 11:00am on Friday after a depression turned into a very severe cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.

Maximum 280-285 cft gas was supplied against a demand of 400 ctf gas daily. Since 215-220 cft gas is supplied from domestic wells, halting of LNG supply increases deficit, which is usually adjusted with gas rationing.