The current energy crisis has not suddenly appeared; Petrobangla has been following a gas-import-dependent plan since 2011-12. Gas production from local sources (including Petrobangla and IOC) reached 2,700 million cubic feet in 2016-17 but has now decreased to about 1,500 million cubic feet. This is a major failure of Petrobangla.

The previous Awami League government became increasingly import-dependent without giving adequate importance to gas exploration and production from local sources. A key part of their plan included establishing floating LNG terminals (FSRUs) and land-based regasification plants. It's now evident that neither has been effective as expected.

Currently, we only have two FSRUs in Maheshkhali. Due to infrastructural limitations, we cannot import gas from external sources as needed. On the other hand, the initiatives and plans to increase gas production from local sources over the last 10-11 years have not achieved the desired success.

The question now is, how can we get out of this situation? There is no quick and easy solution to the current crisis. In terms of increasing domestic gas production, a ''BAPEX-only'' policy has been generally followed thus far. We had hoped that relying on BAPEX, production could be maintained up to a certain level. But the reality is that production is decreasing by 100-200 million cubic feet every year.