Bangladesh will seek details from the Asian Development Bank, secretariat of the four-nation transborder gas pipeline, on the prospect of gas import from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, officials said. An Energy Division official told New Age that they had recommended that the Economic Relations Division should seek the details from the Asian Development Bank on the quantity, pressure, duration and the cost of gas which would be fed into Bangladesh’s transmission line from Turkmenistan.
‘We also need to know the possible route of gas transmission line from Fazilka in Punjab, India to Bangladesh. We want to know if there is any Indian transmission line available from Fazilka and whether India would allow us to carry gas to Bangladesh,’ he said.
The official also said that they would want to get an idea about laying gas transmission line and other infrastructure like setting up compressor stations to connect Bangladesh’s transmission network to the TAPI pipeline which primarily would end at Fzilka in Punjab.
He said that the Economic Relations Division would soon send a letter to the Asian Development Bank before the nation joined the transborder energy trade.
The official said that the government would proceed with the project if the Turkmenistan gas would cost close to the price of liquefied natural gas which is planned to be imported from the Middle East.
On behalf of the TAPI steering committee, the Asian Development Bank on July 2 sent a letter to the Asian Development Bank of Bangladesh with a request for submission of a formal proposal to Turkmenistan by July 15.
In the letter, the Asian Development Bank suggested that the Economic Relations Division should specify technical details such as expected gas off-take volume, gas quality, delivery pressure and expected off-take date in the proposal.
‘But we are almost in the dark about the technical details that the ADB wants us to include in the proposal. We only have a few bits of information off the internet which do not help us to prepare the proposal,’ the Energy Division official said.
‘Apart from this, we need to have an idea about whether the gas from Turkmenistan would be viable for us before we place a formal proposal to be owner of the gas reserve,’ he said.
The Energy Division, however, asked the state-run Gas Transmission Company Limited to make a preliminary technical assessment of the proposed inclusion of Bangladesh into the project about two months ago.
But the GTCL had to depend on information available on the internet which would not help it much in the task.
The TAPI steering committee at a meeting on May 23 accepted an initial proposal of Bangladesh for its inclusion in the transborder gas pipeline project under which the country would import gas from Turkmenistan.
The steering committee is composed of the deputy chairman of cabinet ministers of Turkmenistan, the minister of mines of Afghanistan, the minister of petroleum and natural resources of Pakistan and the minister of petroleum and natural resources of India.
The Asian Development Bank is the coordinator and facilitator of the project connecting one of Central Asia’s largest energy suppliers with South Asia’s critically underserved market.
Energy sector officials and experts, however, doubted the viability of being connected to the TAPI project as the price of gas would be beyond the affordability of the country.
They said that the government would need to lay out a pipeline and install a number of gas compressor stations or use the Indian infrastructure by paying wheeling charges to connect Bangladesh to TAPI and both would require a huge amount investment.
In addition, he said that Bangladesh would need to participate in laying out a 1,680km pipeline from the gas field in Turkmenistan to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan, they said.
According to an assessment made in 2008, $7.6 billion would be needed for building infrastructure for gas transportation from Turkmenistan to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After a decade-long negotiation, the four nations on May 23 this year signed a gas purchase and sales agreement under which Turkmenistan would supply around 3,200 million cubic feet of gas a day — around 1,350mmcfd each to Pakistan and India while the rest to Afghanistan — for 30 years.
Turkmenistan is expected to supply gas from 2018.
Amid severe energy crisis, Bangladesh initiated negotiations to import gas from energy-rich Central Asia through pipeline in 2010.
At the same time, the government initiated a process to import liquefied natural gas from the Middle East.
It has been assessed that now, LNG would cost Bangladesh $16 a thousand cubic feet (a unit) of gas while the country is buying gas for about $3 a unit from international oil companies which are operating in local gas fields.
The state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation, or Petrobangla, feeds around 2,200mmcfd of gas to the national grid with a shortfall of more than 500mmcfd against the daily demand.
Courtesy of New Age
