Opinion
For the past few days, one of the main crises in the country has been the decrease in gas supply. Due to the lack of gas, factories are closing one after another, thousands of people are becoming unemployed. Many garment factories have closed down or canceled work orders. It is easy to imagine how much of an adverse impact this could have on the economy of Bangladesh.
Five of the six government urea fertilizer factories in Bangladesh are closed due to gas shortage. As a result, farmers will be crying out for fertilizer in the coming season, and agricultural production will hit rock bottom. Power generation is being disrupted due to gas shortage, and load shedding is becoming severe. Due to the lack of gas in the crisis, the number of vehicles on the roads is decreasing, and public transport is suffering.
Why is there this gas crisis? Who is responsible for it? Let’s try to understand it easily.
Bangladesh’s daily gas demand is about 3800 million cubic feet. Out of this, 1600-1700 million cubic feet is currently available from domestic gas fields. This supply is decreasing day by day. In 2017, Bangladesh’s highest daily production was recorded at 2700 million cubic feet and since then it has been decreasing continuously.
To meet the increased gas demand, the Awami League government decided to import LNG, and in 2018, the gas imported from LNG was added to the national grid.
Long-term contracts have been signed with Qatar Energy, Oman’s OQ Trading and the US’s Accelerate Energy for LNG supply. In addition, LNG is also purchased from the spot market as per demand. Gas from imported LNG to the national grid is supplied from two floating terminals anchored near Maheshkhali, which are FSRUs (Floating Storage and Regasification Units). One of these is operated by the US company Accelerate Energy and the other by Summit Group. A maximum of 1050 million cubic feet per day can be supplied from these two FSRUs.
On July 21, a fire broke out at the FSRU operated by Accelerate Energy. Despite being a very sensitive facility, the fire burned for about 15 minutes. The unit’s power control and instrumentation cables were damaged and out of service. As a result, gas supply from the unit was completely stopped. This reduced the supply of LNG from 1050 million cubic feet to 500 million cubic feet.
That is, against the daily demand of 3,800 million cubic feet, the current supply is around 2,100 million cubic feet, which is a little more than half. It is not yet certain when the supply will return to normal.
After reading this much, you might say, “This is just an accident, so who is responsible?” Let’s try to find the culprit.
To meet the growing demand for gas and ensure uninterrupted gas supply, the Awami League government signed an agreement with Summit Group for the third FSRU unit in March 2024 on an urgent basis. The capacity of this third FSRU unit was 600 million cubic feet. Summit Group completed the purchase of a vessel to install this FSRU unit on an urgent basis and also rented a dockyard in China for its modification.
The necessary lead instruments have also been procured. The installation of this unit was supposed to start in November-December 2024 and be completed in April. It is worth noting that the installation of the FSR unit has to be done in winter, as it is difficult to do so at other times due to the amount of currents in the ocean.
The illegal interim government, after seizing power, cancelled the third FSRU contract with Summit Group in October 2024. The argument was made that it was not necessary. Questions were also raised about the tender process and Summit’s capacity. However, Summit has been successfully operating the FSRU unit since 2019 and is currently the only hope.
Summit Group has filed a court case against this decision, which is still pending. The LNG import agreement with Summit Group was also cancelled in September 2025. Ironically, the argument is that there is no need to import LNG from Summit without a third FSRU unit.
In other words, the decision to cancel the third FSRU unit of the illegal interim government led by Yunus is the main reason for the current gas crisis. But Tarique Rahman’s advisor Zahed Ur Rahman tried to blame the Awami League in a press conference on July 28. The gas crisis is being created due to the lack of proper initiatives by the Awami League government.
However, the Awami League government has done everything possible to ensure the long-term energy supply of the country. The current crisis in Bangladesh is due to Yunus’s imprecise decisions. Tarique Rahman’s government has also maintained this continuity.
Another pattern is very noticeable here. Under the terms of the trade agreement signed with the United States during the illegal interim government, an LNG purchase agreement was signed with Accelerate Energy for the next 15 years, which was an extended version of 2023. According to this agreement, 12 cargoes were to be delivered in 2026 and a total of 232 cargoes of LNG in 15 years, but Accelerate Energy declared force majeure on the pretext of the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz by delivering only 2 cargoes in February 2026. That is, they have not supplied any more gas so far.
However, the current government on July 28 finalized the decision to purchase 78 cargoes of LNG over 13 years from the US company Ganbar USA LLC. This will cost Tk 71,495 crore, which is Tk 18,000 crore more than the current market price. Why did a G2G agreement have to be signed with another private US company even after a US company failed to supply gas as per the existing contract? In whose interest? Will they be able to supply gas at all?
The interesting thing is that even though the contract is with a US company, they are sourcing the gas from the Middle East. So why is it not being sourced directly from a Middle Eastern country?
The current gas crisis is due to the one-sided import of LNG in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a cruel victim of this game of Yunus-Tarek to please the United States at any cost to come to power and stay in power. We are still only seeing a small part of the problem. In the future, many more dangers are coming to all sectors of Bangladesh.
https://stapravda.ru/20221228/reyting_samyh_populyarnyh_hostingov_v_rossii_196445.html, рейтинг хостингов России подтверждает, что выбор надежного провайдера важен для бизнеса.