Intraco Refuelling Station PLC to bring 20 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) more gas from the Bhola in the CNG (Comprehensive Natural Gas) form.
Currently, the company has been distributing 5 MMCFD to different industries in Dhaka and adjoining areas after transmitting gas from Bhola through trailers.
If the government wants, Intraco can increase its transmission and distribution capacity to 25 MMCFD within the next 6 months, said the top officials of the company at a seminar in the city.
The gas can be injected to the national grid at any point to address the low pressure problem at the distribution line, they said.
Intraco Group Managing Director Mohammad Riyad Ali said, "Despite the gas crisis in the country, the gas discovered in Bhola cannot be fully utilized due to the lack of a pipeline.”
That is why they are converting that gas into CNG and supplying it to Dhaka and surrounding factories through special arrangement, he added.
The Shahbazpur and Bhola gas fields have a storage capacity of 2.04 trillion cubic feet of gas. The daily production capacity is 200 million cubic feet.
Its local demand is 70 to 80 million cubic feet. About 120 million cubic feet of gas remains unused. But since the pipeline was not built, Intraco signed an agreement with the state-owned Sundarban Gas Company Limited (SGCL) on May 21 last year to supply gas to various industries in Dhaka, Gazipur and Tangail and surrounding areas.
The contract was signed on an unsolicited basis under the recently repealed Speedy Increase of Power and Energy Supply Act 2010.
According to the agreement, they will buy gas at a rate of Tk 17 per unit (1000 cubic feet) and sell it to the industries at Tk 47.60 per unit. After the agreement, the company has supplied this gas to 18 factories since December 21 last year.
Appreciating the interim government for taking initiative to bring Bhola gas to the mainland through a competition bidding process, he said, "We welcome this initiative. We want to work the way the government wants.”
The more companies come, the more competition will increase. In addition to protecting the interests of the country, our marketing and other areas will also benefit. Many industrial owners are already contacting us to get gas.
Intracore Deputy Managing Director Saiful Islam Chowdhury said, "The gas is being converted into CNG from Bhola and supplied to various factories by sea and then by road. In this case, we are using a large cascade truck trailer (special transport)."
It was informed at the event that recently, due to a slight increase in gas pressure in Narayanganj, Gazipur, Savar and surrounding areas under Titas Gas and the closure of several industries in the mentioned areas, the demand for non-pipe gas has decreased slightly, resulting in a decrease in the supply of this gas.
However, if the government wants, they are ready to supply the surplus gas of the first stage to any point of the nearby national gas grid in order to keep the country's gas supply system dynamic and effective.
Officials said that for the second stage, Intraco has purchased 106 acres of land in Char Gazipur Mouza of Sanchra Union of Borhanuddin Upazila of Bhola for compression and transportation of 20 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Currently, against the demand of at least 4,000 MMCFD across the country, an average of about 2,800 MMCFD is being supplied.
Of this, about 1,000 is being imported from abroad while remaining gas is being produced from different gas fields.
The pipeline needed to bring the Bhola gas isolated from the mainland requires a huge amount of investment.
Due to the lack of pipeline and transmission facilities, the government has not been able to supply the surplus gas from the Bhola field to other energy-demanding industrial areas including Dhaka.