The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bangladesh's gas crisis may persist for next one decade as there is no immediate option for addressing the problem-neither through augmenting domestic production nor through import of the fuel.

According to experts in the hydrocarbon industry, the demand-supply gap will continuously be widening as the government failed to make a move in proper time considering the future situation.

At present, the country produces about 1,700 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas per day against a demand for 1,800 mmcf. The shortage is about 100 mmcf a day.

The demand is growing at 8-10 percent per year while the output is not rising proportionately for constraints on the exploration side.

The government has moved for holding 3rd-round gas-block bidding. But it takes at least 9 years to get gas from any block to be allocated through the latest bidding.

Despite such a situation in view, the country does not have any dependable option to rapidly increase production to cope with the demand side.

Particularly, the recent major failure in the international oil company Cairn's exploration in the offshore Magnama field has extremely frustrated the state-owned corporation Petrobangla about possibility of gas-production enhancement in the near future.

Petrobangla landed in such a quandary as its authorities had a belief that there might be a reserve of 3.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in the Magnama belt. But, to their dismay, the field was found dry after having dug 4,000 metres down the seabed.

Following the failure in the Cairn's operation, the government went for considering the gas-import option.