The government has withdrawn around one-quarter of the natural gas supply allocated to electricity generation as part of emergency rationing following a fire at an Excelerate Energy-operated floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) during a ship-to-ship LNG transfer, an official said.
“We have reduced gas supply to the power sector by 250 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), bringing total supplies down to around 700-750 mmcfd,” Petrobangla’s Director (Operations), Engr Md Rafiqul Islam, told Just Energy News.
He said Petrobangla had also cut a further 250 mmcfd of natural gas supplies to other consumer groups, resulting in significant disruption for households and compressed natural gas (CNG) users.
According to Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited, the government has reduced gas supplies to the company by 300 mmcfd as part of the nationwide rationing programme to offset the loss of around 450 mmcfd of LNG supply from the Excelerate-operated terminal.
“We normally receive around 1,500 mmcfd of gas, but today we received only 1,200 mmcfd,” Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Managing Director Engineer Shawnawaz told Just Energy News.
He said the company was managing the reduced supplies through a rationing system.
Titas’ actual daily gas requirement is around 2,200 mmcfd, compared with total national demand of approximately 4,000 mmcfd.
Meanwhile, Petrobangla officials said Excelerate Energy had informed them that a technical team was expected to arrive on Thursday night to assess the damage. The company hopes to complete repairs on Friday and is also considering restarting the FSRU at partial capacity.
However, Petrobangla officials said they had not yet received any firm assurance on when the terminal would resume operations, according to a source familiar with the matter.