State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Sunday said that Bangladesh is facing a gas shortage of nearly 1,000mmcfd compared to its daily demand.
"The country is extracting around 2,050mmcf of gas daily, while the daily demand is approximately 4,000mmcf,” he said these things to the national parliament in response to the question of MP M Abdul Latif on Sunday.
“We are adding about 800 to 900mmcfd of imported LNG to the national grid. So, the total shortfall in gas supply is nearly 1,000mmcfd," added the state minister.
Stating that various activities are being implemented to meet the existing shortage and future gas demand, the state minister said: “Process is underway to dig 48 wells by 2025 to meet the gas shortage. As a result, an average of 618mmcf of gas per day will be added to the national grid. Of these, drilling and workover activities of 10 wells have been completed, ensuring the production of 118mmcf of gas per day and 33mmcf of gas per day being fed into the national grid.”
Hamid also said the capacity increase of one of the two floating LNG terminals boosted the total daily LNG supply capacity to 1,100 million cubic feet mmcf.
"A long-term gas production forecast up to the 2040-41 fiscal year has been projected while considering domestic gas field exploration, production, unconventional resource extraction, offshore gas exploration, LNG import and pipeline gas import," said the state minister.
In response to another question from M Abdul Latif, the state minister said that BPC imports 50% of the total amount of refined fuel oil through GTU and 50% through international open tenders.
Nasrul Hamid said that BPC is importing refined fuel oil on a GTU basis from state-owned companies in six countries (India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, UAE and Malaysia).
Bangladesh imports 2,656 megawatts of electricity from India on a daily basis
In response to a question from independent MP Saiful Islam, the state minister said: "The country has 141 thermal power plants with a capacity of 23,159 megawatts. 2,656 megawatts of thermal power is being imported from India. A total of 18 thermal power plants with a capacity of 11,303 megawatts are under construction and in various stages of the tender process.”
In response to the question of Nurunnabi Chowdhury, a member of parliament of the ruling party, he said: “To reduce the import dependence on crude oil, Eastern Refinery Limited has adopted a plan to set up a new refinery with double the capacity of the current unit of 3 million metric tons. This project will be implemented by 2028-29.”