People in Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj and several other parts of the country have been suffering due to acute shortage of gas supply. People have to wait till night for cooking at homes as gas supply is not available during daytime. Running industries have become a tough task, disrupting productions at export-oriented factories.

Power generation is usually reduced by half during the winter. This reduces the demand for gas in the power sector. As a result, the supply of gas to industrial, residential and commercial sectors is expected to increase. But this time the supply of gas has decreased. Production from local gas fields has been declining. As a result, customers are suffering from gas crises even in winter. Experts fear that this suffering will further increase in the coming days.

The demand for gas is now 3.80 billion cubic feet per day. A supply of 3 billion cubic feet per day can somewhat tackle the need. But the supply has now come down to 2.5 billion cubic feet.

Bangladesh could once produce 2.7 billion cubic feet of gas per day. But production has been declining since 2018. The previous Awami League government turned to LNG imports to meet the deficit, emphasising little on gas exploration and production. As a result, the production has decreased to 1.93 billion cubic feet now, from last year’s 2 billion to 2.1 billion cubic feet.

Experts blame the energy division’s negligence and inefficiency for this situation. Despite having maximum reserves, production could not be increased in Titas and Kailashtila gas fields due to lack of technical planning and technology while the production from Bibiana gas field, which has comparatively less reserves, could be maximized manifolds.