Amid the ongoing gas crisis, the government has given new connections to some 40 industries, but there is no hope for 57 CNG filling stations waiting for their turns for the last two years.
The domestic and commercial consumers and captive power producers will also have to wait till 2013 to see an improvement in gas supplies and get new connections, a senior Petrobangla official said yesterday.
Owners of CNG filling stations at a press conference yesterday urged the government to supply gas to these 57 stations. The government in 2007 and 2008 approved setting up these units under the distribution systems run by Titas Gas, Pashchimanchal Gas, Bakhrabad Gas and Karnaphuli Gas.
The proprietors have invested around TK 300 crore with bank loan and self-finance, said leaders of Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners’ Association.
But as they are yet to get gas, they are suffering huge financial loss, said Zakir Hossain Nayon, general secretary of the owners’ association.
Until now each of the owners has paid loan interest of Tk 50 lakh on an average and is facing bankruptcy, he claimed insisting, the government would not require additional gas for the new stations as these would only split gas sales among the existing 556 stations across the country.
According to Petrobangla officials, the CNG stations consume around 200 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas per day, which is one tenth of country’s total gas consumption.
Around 2.20 lakh vehicles currently run on CNG, which in turn saves nearly Tk 15,000 crore worth of petroleum imports a year, said station owners.
Admitting such savings, officials pointed out that while petroleum could be imported, it is not so for natural gas. As the country is facing a dearth of gas to run its existing operations, it cannot afford to offer gas to new consumers.
After suspending new gas connections from March last year, a government committee headed by prime minister’s Energy Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury endorsed links to only a handful of industries, a top official of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd told The Daily Star yesterday.
“We have thousands of applicants ranging from industries to domestic customers seeking new connections, but our hands are tied,” mentioned the official.
When new connections were suspended last year, Petrobangla could supply a maximum of 2000 mmcf of gas per day against a demand of more than 2400 mmcf. The government promised the applicants to provide connections after increasing the supply up to 2200 mmcf.
But the situation remains unchanged and it is unlikely to improve before 2013. Moreover, to improve the supply, the government must install at least three new major gas pipelines, for which the tender is at the initial stage.
Considering appeals from various industries, the government committee reviewed applications and picked some units with little gas requirements as opposed to their sizes of investments. The committee also considered the number of jobs and the prospect of exports offered by the units.
“The government is not giving gas connections to captive power producers, commercial, domestic or CNG consumers. It is limited to some industrial units,” noted the Titas Gas official.
Hundreds of CNG stations have sprung up across the country in the last one decade mainly because of its high returns, while those are putting extra pressure on the requirement of traditional customers, he observed.
“Many top industrialists own CNG stations as they generate high profits. The investment can be recovered within 24 to 30 months and that’s why financing in CNG stations had been lavish.”
Besides, there had been investments in CNG conversion units, which also triggered the sales of cars and consequently contributed to traffic jams, he maintained.
-With The Daily Star input
