Gas crisis will get resolved in a day or two: Nasrul

Gas supply situation will improve in Dhaka and Chattogram in a day or two, said State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Sunday (January 21).

"We hope that the existing crisis of gas supply in Dhaka and Chattogram will get resolved in a day or two," he said while briefing reporters at his ministry.

Nasrul Hamid attributed the crisis of gas supply to the winter season and illegal connections. "Gas crisis in Dhaka and Chattogram will get resolved soon. Everybody must wait with patience."
He noted that both the floating storage and re-gasification units (FSRU) at Moheshkhali in Cox's Bazar have resumed operation and the situation is gradually improving.

"However, one of them will undergo scheduled maintenance soon," he said.

"But the government has taken measures to increase the supply of LPG as the some 80 per cent of the residential consumers now use this liquified gas," he said.

He said only consumers in Dhaka and adjoining areas use the pipeline gas while remaining use the LPG.

If the industrial consumers are deducted from the total consumers, the number of household consumers will be 25 lakh, he said.

He also informed that the government has a plan to install gas meters for all the consumers in the next three years.

The country has been experiencing acute gas shortage since the start of the winter season. But the situation drastically deteriorated when one of the FSRUs experienced technical glitch on Friday.

The FSRU was repaired and put on operation that led to slight improvement in gas supply to Chattagram and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, another SFRU, which was on a 45-day scheduled maintenance, also resumed operation leading to a further improvement in the supply.

But the gas crisis was not fully resolved .

Many areas in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur had been experiencing extreme gas crises or low pressure problems.

END/SZA