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Petrobangla withdraws decision to cut gas supply to industries


Published : 21 Apr 2022 10:02 PM | Updated : 21 Apr 2022 10:02 PM

The government has withdrawn the decision to suspend gas supply to the factories for four hours daily, which will be effective from today (Friday).

Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) issued a notice in this regard on Monday. Earlier, the state-run Petrobangla had issued circular for stopping gas supply to industrial units for four hours daily for 15 days from 5pm to 9pm from April 12 to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the holy month.

In last month, the government had decided to keep compressed natural gas (CNG) stations closed for six hours a day (from 5 pm to 11 pm) instead of the previous schedule of five hours. 

An official of Petrobangla said the gas crisis had hit power generation due to increasing demand for electricity during the Ramadan and irrigation season. It had been decided to ration the gas supply in the factories to provide gas to the power plants for production as per the increased demand.  

An acute gas crisis had affected household and industrial consumers in recent days. Lack of gas also caused load shedding during the month of Ramadan, the fasting month.

Petrobangla officials said gas rationing was carried out for four hours at the factory due to the gas crisis. Now the crisis is over. After importing LNG its supply has already started. Besides, supply system from the Bibiyana gas field of Chevron has become normal. Therefore, the decision of gas rationing of the industry has been withdrawn.

On 16 September last year, the government had directed the CNG pump owners to keep their stations closed for four hours from 6 pm to 10 pm every day until further order against the nagging gas crisis across the country.

In February, the closure was extended for five hours a day from 6 pm to 11 pm.

Energy industry insiders said the country has to import about 20 percent of its gas at a high cost to supply fuel to the local network through two floating storages and regasification units (FSRUs). Two FSRUs have a capacity to supply 1,000 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas per day.