The government has decided to extend the suspension of gas supply to CNG filling stations across the country for another hour. So, the CNG filling stations will remain closed from 6pm to 11pm everyday instead of the previous schedule of 6-10pm.
The decision was taken to increase the supply of gas during the peak hours of electricity production in power plants. This restriction is effective from Tuesday (1 March), Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) said in a press release.
The implementation of the decision would be monitored and its violators would face legal action, the release added.
In September last year, the government had directed the CNG pumps owners to keep their pumps shut for 4 hours from 6pm to 10pm every day until further order.
The government had promised to the CNG filling station owners to resume full-scale gas supply from January this year but later the decision was changed.
There are over 500 CNG filling stations operating in the country. About one million vehicles are running with CNG.
Energy industry insiders said the country has to import about 20% of its gas at high cost as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and re-gasify to supply the fuel to the local networks.
For the last few months, the price of LNG on the global market witnessed a sharp rise from $6 per MMBtu to more than $30 per MMBtu.
