Bangladesh LPG Autogas Station Owners Association has called upon the government to ensure ‘affordable’ supply of energy from gas fields in Bhola to the national grid, using cost-effective technology that supports the economic growth of the country.
LPG Autogas Association President Engineer Mohammad Serajul Mawla said gas-dependent industries will get ‘a relief’ from Bhola gas amid increasing energy demand in keeping with a growing economy.
“As the demand for energy increases, Bhola gas will help the economy to some extent but the step of depressurizing this gas and compressing it through CNG compressors for transportation is very costly and it wouldn’t bring any economic benefits for the country,” the LPG Autogas Station Owners Association said in a statement circulated on Saturday.
LPG Autogas Station Owners Association is a Commerce Ministry-affiliated organisation representing about 800 autogas filling station operators across the country.
Recently, Sundarban Gas and Intraco signed a 10-year public-private partnership agreement to connect gas from the country's 29th gas field in Bhola to the national grid by converting it to CNG.
Engineer Serajul Mawla, the association's president, highlighted the availability and cost-effectiveness of the technology for supplying gas to industrial areas from gas fields in Bhola.
He said the gas from Bhola can be compressed from 1000 psi to 3000 psi pressure through booster compressors and easily transported by water and land. By doing this, the compression charge will be less than half and the decompression charge will be completely eliminated.
Serajul Mawla further said that hundreds of mobile storages exist in Bangladesh for gas supply from various CNG stations to various garments and industries.
If the government wants, it can allow hundreds of industries who pay the price of feed gas (17.00 per cubic meter) and compress and will bring to the industry at their own cost.
According to engineers, a domestic 'booster compressor' capable of processing 500 cubic meters of gas per hour costs only Tk 4 million, while the electricity consumption per hour is only 50 kilowatts, so it will cost only Tk 2 to 3 per cubic meter of gas.
On the other hand, the existing mobile storages can carry 3000 cubic meters of gas each time. If it costs Tk 25-30000 each time to travel from Bhola to Dhaka, then the transportation cost will be only 7 to 8 taka per cubic meter.
Therefore, if you do this, the cost will be reduced a lot. Also, since LPG autogas is available in almost all the upazilas of the 64 districts of the country as an environmentally friendly and affordable alternative, the gas used in the CNG sector can be given to the industrial sector because CNG is no longer used in public transport like buses.
CNG is now mostly used in private cars where common people have no use. So the government can take this decision if it deems it necessary in the interest of the country.
Since all CNG stations now have LPG, there is no chance of the owners of CNG stations being affected, said the Bangladesh LPG Autogas Station Owners Association.