 | Gas crunch continues with a vengeance as woes mount
15 January, 2011
An acute gas supply crunch in the capital has lately been crippling the households, CNG filling stations and industrial operations for long hours every day resulting in a huge impact on the national economy, consumers and analysts said Friday.
Gas users in different parts of the city said they have not been getting adequate natural gas supply throughout almost the whole day which is disrupting their daily works severely.
"From the early morning to 11 at night, I have failed to operate my gas-fired cooker. So, I had to procure breakfast and two meals from the restaurant to feed my child and husband," said Sharmin Islam, a housewife in the city's Pallabi area.
Admitting the gas supply plunge, state-owned energy corporation Petrobangla's chairman Hossain Mansur said since the gas production is inadequate against the demand, the consumers in the city are being affected.
"Rising consumer growth caused by unusual urbanisation of Dhaka is the major reason for the supply crunch as our old and narrow pipelines cannot distribute gas with adequate pressure to all households and other consumers," he told the FE.
Most of the pipelines have been installed in the 60s and the 70s in the capital, when the consumer-base was lower than the present, the Petrobangla chief said.
"Think about the Dhanmondi area. In the 70s, the buildings were maximum two-storied when the gas distribution lines were installed. Now lots of multistoried buildings are being built for which gas demand has risen manifold against the limited supply capacity," Mr. Mansur said.
"Besides, the gas pressure in the pipeline falls automatically during winter due to impact of the cold weather," he added.
People from different parts of the capital including Mirpur, Pallabi, Kafrul, Kalayanpur, Mohammadpur, Kamalapur, Azimpur and older parts of the city said they had not been receiving adequate gas from morning to evening daily.
CNG filling station owners said they are being forced to shut filling stations for several hours in the day which has affected their business.
"Can you imagine, I had to shut my pump from 9am to 3pm almost every day in the last week due to trickling gas supply? How can I run my business?" said a puzzled Jahangir Hossian, a CNG pump owner in Kafrul.
A garment factory owner at Kalayanpur said, "My gas-fired boiler does not work due to poor gas pressure causing huge looses to production daily."
"There are acute constraints in the transmission and distribution lines in some areas in the capital for a long time. The company is failing to supply additional gas to its age-old distribution lines against the surging demand," a Titas Gas director told the FE.
The director said since the Petrobangla is failing to supply adequate gas, the Titas Gas is resorting to lower supply to its nearly 1.4 million consumers in the Dhaka city and adjacent districts.
Titas Gas is getting nearly 1420 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) from the Petrobangla against the total demand for more than 1600mmcfd.
Bangladesh is one of the developing economies with over 8.0 per cent energy consumption growth every year. But the government has failed to ensure adequate energy supply to the consumers due to inadequate production, an analyst said.
All operative gas fields in the country produce about 19800mmcfd of gas leaving a shortfall of over 500mmcfd against the total demand of 2500mmcfd in the peak hours.
Release link:http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=122920&date=2011-01-15
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