Shawdesh Desk:

The state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, Nasrul Hamid, told the parliament on Sunday that the daily gas shortage in Bangladesh was about 1,000 million cubic feet against the country’s demand.

Responding to ruling Awami League lawmaker M Abdul Latif, the state minister in the question and answer session of the Jatiya Sangsad also said that about 2,050 million cubic feet of gas was being extracted daily in the country.

At present, the daily demand for gas in the country is about 4,000 million cubic feet, he added.

He said that, against the demand, about 800-900 million cubic feet equivalent to imported LNG was being supplied to the national grid along with domestically produced gas.

As a result, there is a gas shortage of about 1,000 million cubic feet against the country’s demand, he said.

Pointing out that different types of activities are being implemented to meet the existing shortage and future gas demand, the state minister said that 48 different types of well drilling activities have been undertaken by 2025, the successful implementation of which would enable an average of 618 million cubic feet of gas to be added to the national grid.

Of these, the drilling and workover activities of 10 wells have been completed, through which the production of 118 million cubic feet of gas per day has been ensured and the gas is being fed into the national grid at the rate of 33 million cubic feet per day, he said.

He said that the capacity of one of the two existing floating LNG terminals had recently increased by 100 million cubic feet daily, bringing the total LNG supply capacity to 1100 million cubic feet daily.

He said that long-term gas production projections up to 2040–41 fiscal have been made considering the issues of gas exploration, production of domestic gas fields, extraction of gas from unconventional resources to increase gas production in the future, gas exploration in the sea and LNG imports, and gas import through pipelines.

According to the projection, 4,608 million cubic feet of gas is expected to be supplied daily in the fiscal year 2030–31 and 5,249 million cubic feet of gas per day in the fiscal year 2040-41.

In response to another question from Abdul Latif, the state minister said that Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation imported 50 per cent of the total amount of refined fuel oil through G2G and 50 per cent through international open tenders.

Nasrul Hamid said that BPC was currently importing refined fuel oil on a G2G basis from state-owned companies in six countries.

The countries are— India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, UAE and Malaysia.

In response to the question of independent lawmaker Saiful Islam, the state minister told parliament that there were 141 thermal power plants with a capacity of 23,159 MW in the country.

2,656 MW thermal power is being imported from India, he said and added that 18 thermal power plants with a capacity of producing 11,303 MW were under construction and in various stages of the tender process. In response to the question of AL lawmaker Nurunnabi Chowdhury, he said that, to reduce the import dependency on crude oil, the government had adopted a plan to set up one new refinery with a capacity of 30 lakh metric tons, double the capacity of the current unit of Eastern Refinery Limited.

This project will be implemented by 2028–29FY, he added.