To make do with limited fuels, the government has reduced gas supply to power plants to feed industries as Bangladesh's domestic gas output squeezes and import is limited by fund constraints.
Sources say the government move has been made to manage the twin- crunch now that power uses begin to edge down with the advent of cooler season while entrepreneurs cry for uninterrupted fuel supply to keep the wheel of production rolling.
Officials say the government is now diverting natural gas supplies to industries from power plants to appease the business entrepreneurs and boost the factory output to keep the country's economy in momentum.
The state-run Petrobangla has scaled down the gas supplies to the lowest level to power plants amid the oncoming winter season in November compared to the early winter seasons of the previous years, a senior Petrobangla official told the FE Thursday.
Although a number of gas-fired power plants have come up over past several years, the natural-gas supply to power plants now fell around 24 per cent or 258mmcfd compared to the same period of the previous year, according to official data.
The petroleum marketer supplied around 815 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas to power plants, around one-third of the total requirement of around 2,252mmcfd, as on November 9, 2022.
A total of 30 power plants having the total generation capacity of around 4,000 megawatts (MW) were shut as a consequence of the crunch that lead the government authorities to enforce load-shedding in high summer.
During the same period in the previous year, Petrobangla had provided around 989mmcfd gas to power plants against the similar demand for around 2,252mmcfd on November 9, 2021 when some 25 power plants were laid off.
On November 9, 2020, Petrobangla had supplied around 1,073mmcfd natural gas to power plants against the demand for around 2,196mmcfd when a total of 18 power plants were shut.
"We have squeezed natural gas supplies to power plants so that industrial consumers get more gas," Petrobangla chairman Nazmul Ahsan told the FE Thursday.
He, however, said the demand for natural gas supply to power plants slumped with the advent of early winter.
Industry owners, on the other hand, say they feel little difference as yet in the fuel-supply situation.
"Although natural gas supplies to power plants were cut to raise supplies to industries, the overall situation did not improve that much," executive president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association Mohammad Hatem told the FE later in the day.
Natural-gas supply and pressure increased only to a small number of industries, he said.
Officials said the government decided to increase natural gas supply to industries following a strong urge to the government high-ups from the entrepreneurs a couple of weeks back.
Industry owners had assured their readiness to pay increased gas tariffs if the government supplied more gas even after purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from spot market at high rates.
The government decision to ramp up natural-gas supply, however, was a revert to a previous decision last summer when it had imposed a daily four-hour gas rationing for industrial clients from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
The government, however, withdrew the rationing decision after 10 days of its execution in April.
Bangladesh's liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gasification dipped to the lowest as the country has stopped importing LNG from spot market since July.
Country's both the floating LNG-import terminals re-gasified around 380mmcfd LNG Thursday, which accounts for only 38 per cent of their aggregate re-gasification capacity.
This is the lowest level of LNG re-gasification with both the floating, storage and re-gasification units (FSRUs) being operational.
Overall electricity generation fell to around 9,550 MWs during day peak hours as on November 9, 2022 from above 13,500 MWs during peak summer.
Electricity generation during evening peak hours was around 11,227 MWs as on November 9, 2022.
Country's overall natural gas production was around 2586mmcfd, including 380 mmcfd of re-gasified LNG, on the day against the demand for around 4,000mmcfd.
Azizjst@yahoo.com