Staff Reporter:
Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood has said the government currently has no alternative but to manage load-shedding and wait for repairs to the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to be completed to overcome the ongoing gas crisis affecting industries and power generation.
“This is all I can say: we are working… During this crisis, actually, there is nothing I can do right now. Because I cannot increase gas production, and without the FSRU, I cannot unload the gas that we have,” he said.
The minister made the remarks on Thursday while virtually participating in a dialogue titled “Navigating Bangladesh Energy Crisis: Immediate Priorities and the Path to a Sustainable Energy Future”.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the event at its BRAC Centre in the capital.
Iqbal Hassan said the ongoing crisis began after a fire broke out at a floating LNG terminal. He said there was limited scope for immediate action under the current institutional constraints.
“It is not possible to suddenly increase gas production, while existing gas cannot be unloaded and supplied to the national grid until the FSRU becomes operational.”
Explaining the government’s current strategy, the minister said there was no option but to wait until engineers complete repairs to the FSRU.
He said engineers from the UK and Singapore are working on repairing the LNG terminal. However, once the repairs are completed, the two new boilers will have to be started simultaneously.
The entire system would then need to remain shut down continuously for three days for technical coordination, he said, warning that the country would temporarily face a severe gas crisis as a result.
At the event, he also spoke about battery-powered rickshaws, noting that most of them are charged after midnight through illegal connections.
As a result, the peak period for electricity consumption is shifting to midnight, while total demand is rising to around 18,000MW, he said.
However, government employees are facing attacks in many places while trying to disconnect the illegal electricity connections, the minister added.
