Staff Reporter:
The government is mulling supply of the extracted gas from Bhola field in liquefied form (LNG) to in-dustries.
In view of this Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has convened a public hearing on January 27 to amend the existing ministry order under which the gas from the field is being supplied in compressed (CNG) form only.
The public hearing will be held at BERC’s conference room, BERC Chairman Jalal Ahmed said yester-day.
BERC called written application from interested parties by January 22 for participating in the public hearing. After the hearing the BERC will pass necessary order, he said.
The government has a plan to bring 30 million cubic feet of gas from Bhola in the form of LNG every day.
In the meantime, Petrobangla has sent a proposal to the ministry proposing fixing the price of per cubic feet of LNG at Taka 47.50 which also includes transportation cost.
Earlier, experts considered bringing the gas from Bhola as LNG not viable. As a result a private compa-ny was allowed to bring the gas in the form of CNG on a limited scale (5 million cubic feet) per day.
At that time, the price of per cubic feet CNG was fixed at Taka 47.50 including Taka 17 as gas price and Taka 30.50 for transportation cost. Now the Petrobangla has proposed the same price for LNG price and its transportation.
According to a ministry official four companies submitted proposals to transport LNG from Bhola.
At present a total 32 industrial units under Titas Gas having total demand of around 15.18 million cubic feet per day showed interest in taking the Bhola gas.
Deputy General Manager of Petrobangla Tariqul Islam Khan told that Bapex drilled nine wells in three gas fields in Bhola with a capacity to extract 190 million cubic feet of gas daily.
Petrobangla started drilling of 15 more new wells, and after completion of the drilling the capacity will enhance to 300 to 400 million cubic feet per day.
