The government has decided to keep CNG filling stations shut for six hours a day in order to increase gas supply to power plants during peak hours.
Stations will stay closed from 5:00 pm to 11:00 pm every day, starting Wednesday, the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said in a notice, reports bdnews24.com.
Bangladesh currently has 654 CNG filling stations, which are open 24 hours a day.
But growing demand has led to a significant shortage of natural gas across the country.
According to the government notice, a meeting on Jul 19 decided on the six-hour shutdown of CNG stations while short, medium and long-term plans were formulated to meet the demand of gas-based power plants across the county.
Petrobangla has previously said that gas shortages are hampering efforts to supply power plants.
According to the national oil and gas company’s estimates, it could only supply 1,087 million cubic feet of gas to power plants on Monday, which was only 41 percent of the 2,252 million cubic feet in demand.
Bangladesh is importing gas and also exploring and extracting gas domestically in order to solve the ongoing crisis, State Minister of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told the media on Monday.
