Financial Express Bangladesh: Whither energy security?

Against the backdrop of looming fuel crisis, the issue of energy security, in its real sense, has come to the fore. Various circles have already raised questions over how far the country enjoys this security. 

There should be supply assurance of primary fuel to the power plants and industries for at least 10-12 years, in order to ensure energy security. Bangladesh is already experiencing scarcity of gas and the pace of on-going hydrocarbon exploration is highly unsatisfactory. This has heightened the need to assess the extent to which Bangladesh has energy security now.

Over the past decade, there have been no major effective efforts to explore and exploit the gas resource of Bangladesh, notwithstanding the dependence of its economy, to a large extent, on gas. 

There was otherwise a mushroom growth of medium and large gas and energy-consuming industries in and around Dhaka and Chittagong cities over the years. As result, there has been an unbalanced growth of demand for gas against its available supply. The authorities concerned have not been able to address the problem properly. The absence of proper perspective planning on the part of Petrobangla and its affiliated agencies to coordinate gas sector development and its operation is largely responsible for this. MORE