Gas crisis likely to worsen further

Persisting gas crisis doesn’t bode well for the economy of the country. It has a ripple effect on every sector ranging from bus fare to kitchen market items. Even if you afford to buy everyday essentials you can’t light your gas stove to cook them. It is visible everywhere. There are areas in the capital city of Dhaka, if you would like to call it the capital, where people don’t have gas for hours at a stretch. Some people reportedly said if they failed to cook early in the morning either they had to starve for the whole day or buy food from restaurants.

Price of almost every essential item has soared taking it beyond the reach of 68 per cent people who are struggling to make ends meet. Now price of sugar has gone up by Tk10-15 a kg in Dhaka and Chattogram. Sugar is a key ingredient that food makers need to prepare almost all delicious items like candies, juices, biscuits, sweets and cakes and so on. Hike in sugar price will certainly push up the prices of those popular and delicious items.

Private sugar mill owners attributed the hike of sugar price to that of shortage of gas supply. The country depends highly on sugar import. Importers of sugar have to refine sugar that needs steaming. Without required amount of supply of gas they can’t refine sugar before sugar is marketed. Mill owners import unrefined sugar from different countries like Brazil, India, Australia, Britain and Malaysia. If gas is not supplied to their sugar refineries they can’t refine them resulting in less production hampering the supply chain.

Though the government fixed the sugar price at Tk90 loose sugar is now selling in the market for Tk110 a kg much to the frustration of commoners. Whenever there is price hike of a certain item it is a common practice that the government fixes the price but traders and businessmen don’t comply with the instruction. Nobody listens to anybody like what T. S. Eliot put it ‘falcon can’t hear the falconer’ in his poem ‘The Second Coming’. The government seems to have no control over the market that foreshadows an imminent chaos and volatility in the market.

The textile sector of the country has also been severely affected by poor gas supply. Spinning, weaving, dyeing, finishing and sizing facility owners are counting losses of crores of taka every day. Textile mill owners even offered to shell out more than double they spend on gas but in vain. Production at their mills dropped to 60 percent.

The ripple effect is also seen in the long queue in front of CNG filling station as they have to shut down their stations for five to six hours every day putting all modes of vehicles in trouble. According to government explanation, the crisis stemmed from its decision not to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the international spot markets causing a 10 percent shortfall in gas supply. Whenever there is a crisis the government comes up with its own explanation, be it right or wrong.

The gas crisis, in my opinion, had its root in the government decision of quick solution to power outage by setting up quick rental power plants that consume 42 percent of the total gas supply to generate electricity. The government, for the time being, was able to supply uninterrupted electricity but eventually crisis deepened in both gas and electricity supplies. Quick rental power plants fell apart as quickly as it came into being. It was, I think, a suicidal decision to set up quick rental power plant at the cost of our valuable gas asset. On the one hand it depleted very quickly our gas reserve creating gas crisis and on the other due to lack of gas a good number of those power plants too are now sitting idle. The wrong decision has now affected both gas and electricity sectors signaling a bleak future.

Again another decision, I would rather say a big blunder, was to put bureaucrats at the helm of the regulatory authorities of the country’s oil, gas and mineral resources Petrobangla and its 13 enteritis. Petrobangla and all its associated entities are highly technical. Without technological know-how one can’t run such organizations but unfortunately they have long been driven by the government’s ordinary bureaucrats who have very little knowledge about the operations of such organizations.

Since 1972 out of 31 Petrobangla chairmen only 10 were geologists and petroleum engineers while all others were government senior bureaucrats including military officer. The problem is the government never values the opinions of energy experts who many times in the past tried to say that the government should look for other alternatives like hydroelectricity and solar power where our precious gas reserve will not deplete to feed the power plants. If the government had heeded to their opinions it wouldn’t have to face the dual crises of gas and power.

Even the government outright rejected the calls for further exploring and extracting our own gas reserve. Now it is putting the blame on the Ukraine-Ukraine war. Yes, the war has its obvious negative impact all over the world and it is natural to happen as the world has now become a global community in spite of rivalries. Any incident in one corner of the world has its domino effect on all other parts of the world. I have already mentioned that the government has stopped importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) amid growing high price of energy in the international market due to Russia-Ukraine war. But our gas crisis hasn’t solely emanated from the Ukraine-Russia war. It lies in our imprudent domestic policymaking.

The war has undoubtedly affected Europe that is now reeling due to the shortfall of energy. Gas war of Putin is hurting Europe severely. Gas supply from Russia to Europe has dropped by 78 percent creating overbearing impact on almost all the nations in Europe. German cities are being forced to dim their street lights. France in a bit to reduce energy consumption has banned illuminated advertisements. Italy has dialed down air conditioning.

As part of the global community Bangladesh too is feeling the pinch of the war. The country could have averted the disaster if timely steps and prudent measures, as were suggested by our energy experts, had been taken.

The writer is a journalist.

He can be contacted at [email protected]