Instead of focusing on exploration, drilling and extraction of gas, the deposed government has profited by importing Liquified National Gas (LNG) at a cheaper price from abroad and charging the buyers high prices for that.
But why should the people pay for the fascist government’s wrong policies in the energy sector.
The chronic dependence on LNG imports, coupled with depleting gas reserves, is holding the economy hostage to a perennial energy crisis.
Only 21 out of the 29 gas fields are currently operational, resulting in the 60 gas-fired power plants or so receiving just about 55 percent of their needs.
As of now, only one third of the onshore area of Bangladesh has been explored for gas – making it one of the least explored nations in the world – even though its success of discovering gas has been way above the world average.
Allegedly, the Awami League government had created a chain of corruption.
Those who belonged to the chain were the beneficiaries only. So, people wanted an overhaul of the system and an end to all types of corruption.
They had so long heard stories of development over the years that the per capita income has soared, the GDP growth is high, and the economy has grown and so on. But people could notrelate themselves to those long talks.
Although experts had emphasized on extracting underground gas to deal with the crisis, the government did not pay any heed to them.
It is no secret that increasing the dependency on LNG imports not only threatens the stability of our exchequer but also leaves us at the mercy of other nations.
According to media reports, the country has a daily gas requirement of 3.8 billion (380 crore) cubic feet. The situation is handled by supplying 3 billion (300 crore) feet from local and foreign sources.
Reduction in gas supply is not only disrupting the production in industries, but affecting its supply in residences cooking in Dhaka city. The situation is even worse outside of Dhaka.
On the other hand, the government had used to increase the prices of gas again and again in the name of increased production cost.
If appropriate measures were taken, more gas could have been discovered in the country.
Instead of doing that the government had gone for LNG import as an easy option. And now that has turned into a huge burden for the nation.
