Gas crisis fuels fresh public hardship

# Excelerate Energy terminal shut down again
# Summit collapse worsens shortages

Households struggling to cook, factories facing production disruptions and motorists queuing for CNG are bearing the brunt of Bangladesh’s worsening gas crisis, which has persisted for more than three weeks.

The situation deteriorated further after LNG supplies from Summit’s terminal were suspended on Thursday, leaving the national grid under severe pressure.

A new LNG carrier arrived in the Bay of Bengal on Friday evening, raising hopes of some relief.

The vessel is expected to transfer its cargo to Summit’s terminal overnight, with gas supplies through the pipeline likely to increase from Saturday morning.

Summit has already resumed limited supplies of around 90 million cubic feet a day from LNG stored at the terminal.

The new cargo, supplied by Vitol Asia, is expected to allow the terminal to gradually raise supplies to around 500 million cubic feet a day.

An LNG supply official said the Excelerate Energy terminal was also shut down again at 4pm on Friday because of a technical fault, further aggravating the shortage. The terminal had not resumed supplies by 8pm.

The latest disruption follows difficulties in receiving an LNG cargo sent by Saudi Aramco.

Petrobangla officials said the vessel lacked the capability for ship-to-ship LNG transfer, raising safety concerns. Although the terminal had objected to the vessel, Aramco sent it anyway.

Sources said rough sea conditions also prevented Summit from receiving LNG from the vessel.

The ship was expected to be sent back, with Aramco preparing to send another cargo.

The new Vitol Asia vessel can be handled by the terminal without difficulty, as Summit is accustomed to receiving such carriers.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit said Summit could not receive the Aramco cargo because ship-to-ship transfer was not compatible under the adverse weather conditions.

He said Aramco would send another vessel and that Summit had already started receiving LNG from another ship. He also said the sudden technical problem at Excelerate’s terminal was expected to be resolved soon.

Bangladesh has two floating LNG terminals at Maheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar. Excelerate Energy’s terminal has a capacity of 600 million cubic feet a day, while Summit’s can supply 500 million cubic feet.

Excelerate’s terminal has remained partly out of operation since a fire on 21 July. One of its two boilers, each capable of supplying 300 million cubic feet, was damaged.

The undamaged boiler resumed supplies on 6 August, but its latest shutdown has again brought supplies from the terminal to zero.

The damaged boiler is being repaired, but testing before its restart will require the terminal to suspend supplies completely for 72 hours. No date has yet been fixed for the shutdown.

The country’s daily gas demand is around 3.8 billion cubic feet, against normal supplies of about 2.7 billion cubic feet.

LNG normally contributes around 1.05 billion cubic feet. With LNG supplies falling below 300 million cubic feet after Thursday’s disruption, total gas supplies dropped to about 1.93 billion cubic feet, from 2.03 billion previously.

If Summit reaches 500 million cubic feet, total LNG supplies could rise to around 800 million cubic feet and overall gas availability to about 2.43 billion cubic feet a day. This would ease the crisis but would not eliminate the deficit.

The prolonged shortage has already disrupted household cooking, industrial production, power generation and CNG supplies.

Bangladesh’s floating LNG terminals have become critical to the national gas network, meaning technical failures or weather-related disruptions can quickly translate into nationwide shortages.

Sector insiders say there is no immediate solution to the crisis, with weather conditions also affecting the government’s efforts to stabilise supplies.

Recent rainfall has reduced electricity demand and eased load-shedding somewhat, but a return of hotter weather could again increase power demand, worsening both electricity and gas shortages.