Instead of focussing on exploration, drilling and extraction of gas, the government has profited by importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at a cheaper price from abroad and charging the buyers high prices for that. Now the public is paying for their wrong policies in the energy sector.
As a result, the public is not receiving electricity as per their requirement and a certain group is benefiting in the name of rental power plants. Plus, an indemnity act had also been passed in 2010 so that nobody can go the court against this.
Whereas the country’s demand for electricity is 14,300 megawatts, what can be the logic behind setting up a power plant having the capacity of 26,000 megawatts? Even when electricity is produced according to the total requirement, the plant having the capacity of 16,000 megawatts should be enough.
As reported in Prothom Alo on 11 July, the supply of LNG has been low for almost one and a half months because of a terminal remaining closed. Meanwhile, there has been a leak in the pipeline from an accident on Tuesday night. This has reduced the LNG supply even more causing gas crisis in industries, residences and in the power sector. Several power plants have gone out of production and load shedding has increased across the country.
The country has a daily gas requirement of 3.8 billion (380 crore) cubic foot. The situation is handled by supplying 3 billion (300 crore) cubic foot from local and foreign sources. Out of them, 1.1 billion (110 crore) cubic foot of gas comes through LNG from the two floating terminal in Cox’s Bazar’s Moheshkhali. Right now, these two terminals are supplying only 250 million (25 crore) cubic foot of gas. So, the gas supply has come down to 2.25 billion (225 crore) cubic foot.
A terminal can indeed remain closed during natural disasters or a pipeline can get leaked while the contractor agency digs the soil. But why wouldn’t be there an attempt to reactivate and repair it faster?
The reduction in gas supply is not disrupting the production in industries only. Because of the low gas supply in residences cooking cannot be done properly in the homes of Dhaka city as well. In some areas, there’s gas in the stove only after the midnight and there’s no gas there during the day. The situation is even worse outside of Dhaka.
Everyone had supported the initiative Awami League government had taken to increase the production of electricity after coming to power. But in the name of increasing electricity production, only rental and quick rental power plants have been set up one after another. And leaving the power plants idle for months at end, a certain group has been provided special benefit through the capacity charge.
The government is increasing the prices of electricity and gas again and again in the name of increasing production cost. But, why should the customers as to the public pay for the power plant that doesn’t even produce electricity?
When experts had emphasised on extracting underground gas to deal with the power crisis, the government didn’t pay heed to them back then. Geologist Badrul Imam in a recent discussion organised by CAB said that the policymakers of the government do not listen to the academics. If appropriate measures were taken, more gas could have been discovered in the country. Instead of doing that, the government has gone for LNG import as an easy option. And, now that has turned into a huge burden for the nation.