Shafiqul Islam (Jami)
The supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to the country has decreased by 12 crore 10 lac cubic feet per day due to defects of a terminal. Relevant sources of Petro Bangla have confirmed this news. The government has also lamented the shortage of gas as a temporary problem. It is learned that 52 crore cubic feet is being supplied at present. It will be difficult to increase this supply suddenly. However, if the LNG supply is not increased, the shortage will be felt in a few days. So the government has already expressed regret.
The government has said that the situation will not be normal before January 15. It has been reported that it will take some time to fix the mooring. Ships carrying gas from abroad are unable to anchor at the summit terminal due to the rupture of the mooring buoy.
According to Petro Bangla sources, 641 million cubic feet gas was supplied from LNG on November 18, the day the Mooring of the Summit’s LNG terminal was torn down. The same amount of supply continued till November 21. It started to decrease from then. Later, 56 crore 80 lakh cubic feet on 29 November and 59 crore cubic feet on 30 November have supplied. Then it came down to 52 crore cubic feet. An official of the energy department said that although the mooring was torn, there was some LNG inside the terminal. That was being supplied by converting it to gas.
He also said that the cargo imported from abroad left LNG in the terminal built for LNG. From there gas is supplied to the pipeline through regasification. Supplied LNG stocked from Summit’s floating terminal till November 28. It has been closed since then.
With two floating terminals in Maheshkhali, it is possible to supply 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day. At certain times of the year, 900 million cubic feet of gas is supplied in one day. Gas crisis occurs in winter when water accumulates inside the pipeline. This problem also occurs when the temperature drops. The deficit is not visible as winter is not yet in full swing.
Concerned people say that planting of new paddy starts from December. At this time more electricity is required for irrigation. Diesel consumption has started declining as electricity has reached most parts of the country. But additional power will be required to keep the irrigation situation normal. The government is saying that in order to handle the situation, it is necessary to increase the production of liquid fuel based power plants.
At present the total demand for gas in the country is 400 crore cubic feet. Of this, 141 crore cubic feet has been supplied from the fields of the country on November 2. Moreover, 52 crore cubic feet gas is coming from LNG. That means now half of the demand is being supplied.
