The previous governments overlooked the state-run gas exploration company BAPEX and focused on LNG imports as a quick solution to energy crisis, Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud said on Monday.

“For a long time, we’ve only increased dependency on LNG imports, but ignored our potential gas fields,” the adviser told a press conference orgainsed to share the recommendations of the economic taskforce with the media.

He alleged that there was a tendency to hand over local gas fields to foreign companies during the last regime on an argument that the BAPEX lacks capacity to extract gas.  

However, the interim government is trying to reverse the trend by awarding one or two gas well drilling or seismic survey projects to the state agency in every Ecnec meeting.

If there is any shortage of local expertise, the government is trying to resolve the issue by calling in foreign or Bangladeshi experts working abroad to assist the BAPEX, Mahmud, also education adviser, stated.      

“Now, questions have been raised why our gas fields were handed over to some controversial foreign companies. Our suggestion is to engage BAPEX for this,” he said.

“The manpower shortage issue can be resolved through by hiring people from Petronas, Malaysia or other countries, if needed, but we’ll  strengthen BAPEX,” he added.     

The adviser questioned why Bangladesh won’t be able to develop a state-run company when Malaysia’s Petronas has become successful.

We’re now calling in

The shortage of energy experts can be easily solved by engaging the Bangladeshi experts who have worked with Chevron or ExxonMobil earlier and showed interest in assisting gas exploration in Bangladesh, but they could not be utilised because of bureaucratic tangles, Mahmud highlighted.  

“Now, we’re calling in some of them to assist the BAPEX,” he further said.

For the last few years, the country has been grappling with severe gas crisis, which has been exacerbated by the recent slide in foreign exchange.

The taskforce on reforming economic strategies belives that a straightforward solution to the crisis lies in exploring and exploiting existing gas fields by the BAPEX at lower cost to tap into additional reserves that are likely to be present.

By focusing on maximizing the output from existing fields, Bangladesh can alleviate some of the immediate pressures caused by the gas crisis, reduce, reliance on imports, and support the energy sector’s stability while longer-term energy solutions are developed, it also recommended.