Gas supply resumes in Ctg, pressure low
A technical glitch at a floating LNG terminal in Moheshkhali was fixed on Friday night, but the gas supply to Chattogram remained spotty until last evening due to low pressure in the pipeline.
Power generation also fell, leading to load-shedding in many places yesterday, because of poor supply of liquefied natural gas.
Till the evening, the country faced up to 700MW load-shedding, according to the data of the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh.
"Gas supply from the terminal resumed Saturday [yesterday] morning after engineers fixed the glitch," said Gautam Chandra Kundu, general manager (marketing) of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited.
"The pressure did not reach the expected level immediately. It has been increasing gradually, and we expect households, businesses, and industries in Chattogram to get gas supplies by noon," he told The Daily Star last morning.
However, gas did not reach the majority of the port city's households until late at night, exacerbating the suffering of residents, businesses, and industries throughout the day. Residents in most parts of the city struggled to cook meals for the second consecutive day due to the crisis.
"There is no gas in our stove. We had to buy breakfast from a restaurant," said Sajal Das, a resident of the Hem Sen Lane area.
While gas supply resumed at his home in the morning, Shraban Paul of the Goalpara area said the pressure was too low to cook.
Locals said gas supply resumed properly only after 10:00pm in Halishahar, Tiger Pass, Khulshi, Askar Dighir Par, Jamal Khan, Anderkilla, Raja Pukur Lane, Rahamatganj, Dewanji Pukur Par, and Joy Nagar areas.
As most CNG-run vehicles could not refuel, city streets remained relatively empty compared to other days.
"I waited in a line before a filling station for about six hours but failed to refuel my vehicle last [Friday] morning. I returned to the filling station at 9:00am sharp today [Saturday], but found there was no gas yet," Md Manik, a CNG-run autorickshaw driver, told this reporter in front of a filling station at Kadamtali around 2:00pm.
"I had no income yesterday, and I probably won't be able to drive today," he said, adding, "I live hand to mouth. How will I cover my family's daily expenses?"
With a few public vehicles plying the streets, commuters also struggled to reach their destinations.
"I was late to work as I waited for more than an hour at Chawkbazar intersection to get a CNG-run autorickshaw. Finally, I had to hire a battery-run autorickshaw for double the regular fare."
Omar Hazzaz, president of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the gas crisis severely impacted practically all industries, including readymade garments, food processing, and steel manufacturing.
"At many industries, production was little or nothing over the past two days. The cost of products will increase due to this disruption in production, and consumers will have to bear the brunt of the price hike."
According to sources at Petrobangla, the gas supply snapped on Thursday night due to a technical glitch that occurred during the recommissioning of an LNG terminal, which had been under maintenance for over two months.
Two floating LNG terminals in Moheshkhali, each with a capacity of 500 million standard cubic feet per day (mmcfd), are run by Summit Group and Excelerate Energy of the United States.
Gas was being supplied to Chattogram city and its adjoining areas from the floating terminal operated by Summit Group since November 1, last year, when maintenance work on the other terminal began. This led to a reduction in supply, leaving the city dwellers in dismay.
This suffering intensified when the supply from the floating LNG terminals stopped fully on Thursday night.
Gas supply to the port city started to resume slowly last morning.
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