State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has urged all to be patient for a couple of months terming the current energy and gas crisis as temporary.

“I can assure you, if and when the prices of petroleum and gas decline in the world market, we will definitely readjust the local price accordingly”, he told a seminar at Biduyt Bhaban in the city on Sunday.

“We’re watching the situation closely. Please, be patient for 1-2 months and get united to face the situation. The government will come out of the load shedding by the end of the next month”, he said.

He claimed the government was forced to raise the petroleum fuel prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war situation that pushed up the price in the global market.

“The effect of the war is everywhere and we’re not out of it”, he said adding,

 Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh (FERB) and US-based gas company Chevron jointly organised the seminar titled: “Energy Security in Bangladesh: Volatile International Market” on the occasion of National Energy Security Day.

With FERB president Shamim Jahangir in the chair, the event was also addressed by senior secretary of the Energy Division Mahbub Hossain, Petrobangla chairman Nazmul Ahsan, eminent energy experts Prof Badrul Imam and Prof M Shamsul Alam. Energy&Power magazine editor Mollah Amzad Hossain made a keynote presentation.

FERB executive director Rishan Nasrullah conducted the function.

Nasrul blasted the opposition BNP for criticising the government over the rising petroleum prices, gas crisis and cuts in electricity supply.

“When they were in power the BNP did nothing but plundered the state's wealth. That’s why they became champions in corruption”, he said adding, the people had to experience load shedding for 16-17 hours a day at that time.

He also said that BNP had rejected an offer from India to allow construction of a pipeline to take gas from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.

Read: Power crisis will not last long: Nasrul Hamid

“If that gas line was constructed, we would have got gas from Myanmar at a cheaper rate”, he said.   

The state minister also blamed the energy experts for wrongly advising the government for which it could not offer foreign oil companies to explore in the offshore areas of the country.

“A number of geologists and experts worked with us and they suggested that it would be better to import LNG as exploration may take longer to get gas from our offshore areas”, he added.    

He, however, said three foreign companies including US-based ConocoPhillips were awarded contracts to explore gas in offshore areas.

“But at one stage they left the gas blocks saying that gas production would not be economically viable as they found gas elsewhere at cheaper cost”, he claimed.

Senior energy secretary Mahbub Hossain said the government has taken up a plan to drill 46 wells which will add gas production by 6118 million cubic feet by 2025.

Petrobangla chairman Nazmul Ahsan said the government has appointed a foreign consultant to go for international bidding to explore gas in offshore areas.

“We hope we will get its report and an international tender will be floated by December this year for gas exploration in the bay”, he added.

Prof Badrul Imam said the problems in the energy sector now widened in branches and sub-branches due to lack of initiative for gas exploration in recent decades.

He said Myanmar discovered a huge quantity of gas in its Rakhaine state in the last 10 years.

“But Bangladesh could not explore gas at the adjacent gas block-11, located within our territory despite huge potentials. The answer to this question is essential as to why we failed to do the exploration in our areas”, he said.

M Shamsul Alam said Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) is the legal authority to set the petroleum fuel price like it does for natural gas and LPG.

“But the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) set the petroleum prices defying the law which has no accountability”, he said, adding an independent audit should be conducted in the accounts of the organisation to check its corruption.