Gas supply to normalise within days, says Titumir

The country's acute gas supply crisis is expected to ease within a few days, said prime minister's adviser to the ministries of finance and planning Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir. Gas supplies are returning to previous levels as government initiatives to procure LNG from alternative sources take effect, he said at a seminar on energy security on Monday. The seminar was organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies in the capital. Speaking as the chief guest, Titumir said the government is expanding LNG infrastructure to permanently bridge the gas deficit and ensure uninterrupted supply. He highlighted ongoing work to establish a 1,000mmcfd land-based regasification terminal at Matarbari, as well as near-complete negotiations with a Chinese company to set up a 600mmcfd floating LNG terminal at Kutubjom near Maheshkhali. He said citizens were suffering from an inherited, structurally fragile energy sector, blaming the deposed regime's policies of overreliance on imported fossil fuels and uncompetitive capacity-charge contracts. Unlike previous administrations, the current government would not conceal the severity of the situation or create false narratives around installed generation capacity, he said. The public exchequer paid Tk 281,380 crore in capacity charges for idle power plants between 2009 and June 2026, leaving the economy heavily burdened by debt, he added. Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation's former chairman Manjur Alam Prodhan said that from March to June this year, BPC incurred about Tk 21,000 crore in losses from selling petroleum products at discounted prices while absorbing Middle East supply chain disruptions. BPC is expanding storage across multiple depots, including Chattogram, Fatullah, Khulna and Baghabari, he said. Our current diesel storage capacity lasts 55 days and octane 46 days, he said, adding that following expert recommendations, BPC is executing short-, medium- and long-term expansion projects across the country to meet the 90-day International Energy Agency standard benchmark by 2030. Energy expert Ijaz Hossain said that the country's import dependency for primary energy had reached a dangerous 62.5 per cent, up from only 20 per cent in 2015. 'In just ten years, we have done everything wrong to fall into this abyss,' he said.