C T Online Desk: A piped cooking gas crisis that began in the capital city in July-August of 2022 has become so acute these days that residents are facing untold sufferings and extra financial burden.
Many people have, meanwhile, been forced to resort to alternative options for cooking, including kerosene stoves, induction cookers and cylinder gas stoves, despite paying the gas bill every month as piped gas is not supplied for five to 16 hours a day.
According to residents in various parts of the capital, they have been suffering from the gas crisis since sometime between July and August in the past year.
Shakhawat Hossain Lenin, a resident of Gandaria, said that while they earlier did not get gas for seven hours a day in the past nine months, it is not being supplied for about 16 hours a day for about a week.
‘We have not been receiving gas supply from 7:00am to 11:00pm for about a week. Earlier, gas was available from 8:00am to 3:00pm, when we could cook. We have now no other option but to buy cylinder gas for cooking though we continued to receive and pay the gas bill every month,’ he grumbled.
They, he said, have thus to pay more than double for cooking.
‘We, the local people, submitted an application to the Titas Gas on September 28, 2022, saying that our gas supply earlier had become normal after 3:00pm but for the past few weeks gas has been returning after 8:00pm. We are yet to get any result against the application,’ he said.
Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited managing director Md Haronur Rashid Mullah told New Age that right now they could not do anything about the gas crisis.
Earlier, at normal times, the domestic consumption accounted for 13.19 per cent of the total gas used in the country while the industrial sector used 18.02 per cent, power sector 58.29 per cent, commercial sector 0.48 per cent, CNG-run vehicles 3.45 per cent, fertiliser production 6.36 per cent, tea sector 0.10 per cent and small and medium enterprises sector only 0.11 per cent, according to the 2020–21 annual report of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission.
The gas supply to industries has improved in the past one and a half months, according to insiders.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association executive president Mohammad Hatem told New Age on Friday that the gas supply to industries saw some improvement in the past one and half month.
‘We are still facing the crisis, but less than before,’ he said.
TItas MD said, ‘If we provide gas to industries, households will suffer. If we provide gas to households, industries will suffer. I could not see any solution in the near future. We are a distributor and do supply what we receive from the Petrobangla.’
People have been suffering due to a gas crisis not only in Gandaria but also in most parts of the capital, including Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Pallabi, Bashabo, Dakshin Banasree, Mohammadpur, Moghbazar, Hazaribagh, Shukrabad, Azimpur, Badda and Rajabazar.
Many are forced to buy food from restaurants spending extra money due to the gas crisis for hours during the day time.
Md Atique Islam, a private firm employee, living near the capital’s Dhanmondi Road 15, said that they had not been getting gas supply between 8:00am and 2:30pm since July 2022.
‘I have to take my lunch at a restaurant on Friday, my weekly holiday. It is now becoming a routine for us. I live in a mess. It is very difficult particularly for students to spend additional money on foods at restaurant,’ he said.
He further said that he could not even warm water or take tea even in this winter before going to office.
As a homemaker living at Dakshin Banasree, Nargis begum, said, there remains no gas supply in their area from 7:00am to 3:30pm and it returns for two hours from 3:30pm to 5:30pm but in a very low pressure and again the supply remains off from 5:30pm to 9:45pm.
‘We are planning to shift our house from this area as it has become extremely difficult for us to maintain a normal cooking routine and carry out other related household chores amid such a gas supply. The crisis is getting worse gradually. We have, meanwhile, bought a kerosene stove but it is expensive and unhealthy,’ she added.
Sheikh Fahmida Tasnim, a Jagannath University student living at Bashabo, said that they had been suffering from a gas crisis for the past six months while the crisis worsened in recent days.
‘We get no gas supply from 6:30am to 3:00pm. The gas we receive between 3:00pm and 9:00pm is so low that it is difficult to even boil water for tea. The supply schedule is also not same every day. We have started using an induction cooker and a cylinder gas stove, but still we have to pay the full gas bill every month,’ she said.
‘It is strange! We don’t get gas but have to pay for it,’ she further said.
Data of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, also known as Petrobangla, showed that the gas production fell by 460.1mmcfd on January 12 compared with June 1, 2022.
The country’s total gas production stood at 2,670.4mmcfd, including 421.1mmcfd liquefied natural gas, on January 12, 2023 while the amount was 2,757.9mmcfd, including 483.7mmcfd LNG, on October 1, 2022, 3,130.5mmfcd including 759.7mmcfd LNG on June 1, while the government has the capacity of maintaining a stock of 3,760mmcfd, including 1,000mmcfd LNG.
According to Petrobangla chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker, though the LNG price came down to about half on the world market, the government does not have the ability to import gas from the spot market.
‘Earlier, we bought a unit of MMBtu of LNG at $6. It had risen to $40 and now it has come down to $25. But, we cannot buy LNG before it’s price comes down to $6-10. We will talk to the Titas Gas for rationing gas for households in all areas so that public sufferings come down,’ Zanendra said.
