Bangladesh braces for gas crisis for technical problem

The country will experience shortage in gas supply for the next one and a half months .

Dhaka, Nov 30 : The country will experience shortage in gas supply for the next one and a half months as one of the two regasification units has been out of order.

According to an official statement issued by the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, it will not be possible to make the ship-to-ship transfer of the imported LNG due to the breakdown of a mooring line of two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) of the country.

As a result, the ministry said, there will be an interruption in the LNG supply to the country.

Regretting the imminent disruption, the ministry hoped to restore the gas supply by January 15 by repairing the mooring lines.

Official sources said the country supplies about 590 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) through two FSRUs installed at Moheshkhali. If the operation of one FSRU remains suspended, about 300 mmcfd of gas supply will not come into the supply network, deepening the crisis.

Currently, the country’s total gas output is about 2,970 mmcfd against an overall demand of 3,500.

Of the total output, about 590 mmcfd is imported LNG while the remaining 2,380 mmcfd is coming from the local gas fields resulting in an overall deficit of more than 500 mmcfd.

So, it is obvious, the shortage of 300 mmcfd from the existing supply will further aggravate the crisis, said an insider, reports UNB.