Speakers at a seminar titled: “Strategy Summit 2022: Energy Infrastructure” said that the liquified petroleum gas (LPG) has a lot of potential to be used as energy for industries.

“As the locally supplied natural gas has very low pressure, the LPG can be used as alternative fuel,” said Tanzeem Chowdhury, chief executive officer of Omera LPG.

Valor of Bangladesh organised the strategy summit at a city hotel on Saturday.

The seminar was also addressed by Alamgir Morshed, CEO of Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL), Humayun Rashid, managing director of Energypac and research director of Centre for Policy Duologue (CPD) Dr Khandaker Golam Moazzem.

At this stage, Tanzeem Chowdhury said, the only alternative ready for industries is LPG.

Explaining the global and local energy situation, he said the Russia-Ukraine war has pushed up the energy price worldwide.

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Currently the price of LNG is $40 perMMBtu while the government is providing gas to the industries at $3 per MMBtu where the cost is covered by a huge subsidy.

But LPG is being imported by the private sector at $22 per MMBtu, he said, adding that LPG can be used for power boilers, for heaters, and for some power generators as well.

He said LPG is very competitive with LNG and it is the most viable option for industries.

Dr Golam Moazzem said the cost and reliability of any energy is the major factor for competitiveness.

He said that the capacity payment has been the major challenge for the government due to its unplanned implementation of power projects.

Humayun Rashid said the country’s biggest challenge in the power and energy sector is the synchronisation of the power plants with power transmission lines.

Many power plants are ready to generate electricity, but their transmission line is not ready, he observed.