With insufficient supply against huge demands, a severe gas crisis has set in at many parts of the capital over the last few days, severely disrupting house hold works as well as the local CNG filling stations.
Officials at Petrobangla, the state-run oil, gas and mineral resources corporation, said the present crisis has been caused by a shortage of supply in the national grid, after gas extraction from different wells in several gas fields stopped.
Hundreds of residences in Mohammodpur, Mirpur, Kafrul, Pallabi, Kazipara, Taltola, Shewrapara, Tejgaon, Khilgaon, Malibagh, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, East Rajabazar, and some other areas in the capital are now reeling from the gas shortage.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Monira Khatun, a resident from Mirpur, said: “We could not prepare breakfast at home over the last few days, because of low pressure in gas supply.” While Sobnam begum, a resident of Mohammadpur, told the Dhaka Tribune that she could not prepare lunch for her family.
Meanwhile, officials at Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDC) said they were trying hard to overcome the current shortfall and is planning to increase supply in the capital within a short time.
Titas has around 1,550,000 residential clients and distributes around 1,450 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) against a demand of 2000 mmcfd, officials said. With the crisis at hand, TGTDC has sought an additional 150mmcfd gas from Petrobangla to ease situation.
Managing Director of Titas Gas, Md Nowshad Islam, said: “We are trying to overcome the crisis and hopefully, we will be able to do so soon.”
He, however, pointed out the Power Development Board’s (PDB) additional gas demand in recent timed has forced them to opt for a gas rationing scheme, for both its household and industrial clients.
Gazprom, the Russian gas extraction company, was supposed to complete drilling 10 development wells at different gas fields within December this year. A contract in this regard was signed in April last year.
Petrobangla expected to add around 250–300 mmcfd of gas to the national grid by drilling these 10 wells.
The company has so far drilled one well but is yet to provide 20mmcfd gas to the national grid.
In the meantime, power generation has increased in some gas-fired power plants while production at three fertiliser factories has also resumed, after Petrobangla increased the gas supply for power generation to 929mmcfd from 800mmcfd.
According to Petrobangla, the current demand of gas across the country is 3,000mmcfd while the production stands at 2,317mmcfd.
