The gas supply situation has improved to some extent but the country has still been reeling from load shedding.
The official data of state-owned Petrobangla shows that the gas supply has increased by 210 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) to 2,555 MMCFD on Tuesday from 2345 MMCFD on Monday.
It also shows that there is still a huge gap of about 1000 MMCFD gas between demand and supply of gas for power plants that resulted in the shutdown of a number of gas-fired power plants.
Official sources said the Chevron-operated Bibiyana gas field has returned to its full-scale production capacity of 1200 MMCFD gas. But it was producing 600 MMCFD gas against its full capacity.
“We’re now capable of supplying 1200 MMCFD gas. But the
government is not receiving full supply from Bibiyana field. That's why the field was supplying 600 MMCFD gas,” an official of Chevron told UNB.
Petrobangla officials also admitted that they are not receiving full supply from Bibiyana field saying that power plant authorities said they have no further requirement for gas.
The country’s largest gas field Bibiyana went on a three-day scheduled maintenance on April 3 and came back to production on time, said the officials.
They said the supply of imported LNG to the national grid also has increased as the country was getting 972 MMCFD gas from two LNG terminals at Maheshkhali against their capacity of 1,100 MMCFD.
Meanwhile, the data from state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) shows that the country was experiencing a huge load shedding due to shortages in supply from generation end.
The data shows that the day peak demand of electricity was 13,000 MW while evening peak demand of electricity was 15,000 MW. In the daytime, the highest load shedding was recorded at 501 MW at 10 am on Tuesday morning when the country was generating 12,275 MW against demand for 12,800 MW.
Officials fear that the extent of load shedding may increase in the peak evening periods if hot weather conditions remain unchanged.
