The country’s flagship textiles and readymade garments (RMG) industries are reeling from a crippling gas crisis, threatening an estimated $70 billion in investments amid mounting global trade uncertainty over new US tariffs.
Inadequate gas supply has been forcing Farzana Akter and Rabiul Islam to eat at restaurants every morning for two weeks.
For maintenance work
Looming fertiliser crisis could disrupt food production
Four out of five government-owned urea factories have stopped production due to an acute gas crisis, raising concerns over the availability of enough fertiliser during the ongoing Aman paddy cultivation season and the upcoming Boro paddy season.
Government officials involved have been allowed legal impunity under the provisions of this law.
A two-week-long gas crisis has been affecting homes, factories, and vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, thanks to a dip in supply following the shutdown of an LNG regasification terminal in Cox’s Bazar on May 29.
The government built two compressor stations in 2016 to supply gas at adequate pressure to different districts, but the expensive machinery has been underutilised due to inadequate gas flow.
Gas scarcity is likely to continue till April despite the government’s repeated assurance of scaling up gas supply during Ramadan and the irrigation season as one of the two Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRU) will take longer to complete maintenance works.
Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (Berc) will announce the new gas tariff at the consumer level tomorrow (June 5, 2022).
After four days of disruption, the Chevron-operated Bibiyana gas field resumed full production from this morning – which is likely to end the gas crisis in parts of Bangladesh.
CNG filling stations across the country will remain closed from 5pm to 11pm every day during the month of Ramadan, instead of 6pm-11:00pm, according to a press release of Petrobangla.
Gas supply to the certain parts of Dhaka’s Uttara, Baridhara DOHS and Joarshahra areas will remain shut for nine hours till 3:00pm today due to maintenance work.
Another spell of gas crisis is likely to be due from Tuesday evening for parts of Dhaka city due to the ongoing construction of metro rail.
Four power plants with a combined capacity of around 1,000MW were closed for a temporary period because of a fall in gas supply.
The ongoing gas crisis is likely to linger for at least another week as engineers are finding it difficult to fix the technical problem in an LNG supply line in Cox's Bazar.
Julekha Begum, a resident of Gendaria DIT plot, could not make iftar on the first day of Ramadan as the gas supply went out at 9:00am and did not resume before iftar.
As part of its efforts to address gas crisis in the country, the government is going to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Oman.
Farhana Nasrin cradled her one-and-a-half-year old daughter with one hand and tried to light the stove with the other. The baby was crying for food and the mother wanted to cook something to calm her down.
