Nineteen directives given a year ago by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) have lain dormant for the 14 months since they were issued.
The prime minister issued the directives on February 6, 2014, in her capacity as minister for the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry during her first visit to her office at the ministry last year.
Ahead of Hasina’s second visit to her ministry office scheduled for April 9, a progress review is being undertaken by State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid who recently met with EMRD top officials, ministry sources said.
An Energy Division official, asking not to be named, said a lack of initiative by Petrobangla, BAPEX, BPC and Energy Division officials caused the prime minister’s directives to remain unexecuted.
The directives include setting up the second unit of Eastern Refinery Limited – scheduled to be completed by June 2016, building the country’s first floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) – popularly known as an LNG terminal and installing Single Point Mooring to supply fuel to the refinery.
Hasina also called for an energy action plan for Bangladesh’s bid to achieve middle-income status by 2021 and developed country status by 2041. She asked for high technology interventions to minimise environmental damage before finalising the nation’s coal policy and for a rehabilitation plan for families displaced by coal mining.
The implementation of a project on LNG imports and the construction of a pipeline from the planned offshore terminal in West Bengal, India were also called for by the premier.
The prime minister had asked for pre-paid gas meters to be installed to decrease resource waste, the distribution of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) at affordable prices and the increase of public and private LPG production.
She called for gas exploration and production companies’ capabilities to be enhanced, increasing the gas development fund to reduce ADP allocation, revitalising Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited’s capacity and using foreign currency reserves to develop the energy sector.
Hasina called for a pipeline to be constructed to transport fuel oil from a terminal of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd in India to a Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation depot in Parbatipur, Dinajpur.
Efforts to establish regional cooperation among neighbouring countries to import primary energy, to increase the activity of the Geological Survey of Bangladesh and to lease foreign coal fields to run coal-fired power plants also featured in the list of the prime minister’s directives.
“These instructions are very important for the energy sector. If they are not implemented, energy security will be hampered. Those who are liable for the delay should be held responsible,” Professor Ijaz Hossain of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
State Minister for Energy Nasrul Hamid did not respond to telephone calls or emails, despite several attempts by the Dhaka Tribune, to obtain his comments on the matter.
