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The country’s gas crisis kept worsening by the day as its supply lags far behind the demand thanks to steady depletion in local production.

The supply of gas, meeting over half of Bangladesh’s energy demand, plummeted on Thursday after imported liquefied natural gas unloading was suspended due to the rough sea because of inclement weather.

The gas supply dwindled over the past decade while its cost went through the roof over the same time, particularly after the LNG import began in 2018 to make up for falling local production.    

An analysis of data released by the state-owned Petrobangla since the financial year of 2018-19 on gas supply revealed that it was stuck at the same level despite LNG imports.

With annual increases in gas demand over the past seven years factored in, energy experts said that the gas supply had actually declined, leaving lives and commercial and business activities in a precarious situation.

Desperate industrialists recently vented their frustration, which they could not do under the past Awami League authoritarian regime, saying that they were on the verge of being eliminated.

Industrialists and energy experts refused to accept the Petrobangla’s claim that the gas supply had actually increased to industries.

‘Nobody expected to see the energy crisis completely solved. The expectation was to minimise the problem. But it did not happen,’ said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director, Center for Policy Dialogue.

Industries and businesspeople tried to tackle the problem through alternatives such as relying on solar energy or increasing diesel consumption, he said, adding that those efforts were not adequate.

Officially, the gas demand is about 4,000mmcfd, which is believed to be an underestimation. Hampered LNG unloading brought the overall gas supply down to 2483.7mmcfd on May 29.

Even before the current inclement weather set in, the overall gas supply remained mostly around 2,600mmcfd.

On May 27, the supply stood at 2,600.5mmcfd, including 729mmcfd of imported LNG, which is blended with local gas. The power sector received 941.3mmcfd of gas against the demand for 2420.9mmcfd while the fertiliser sector got 119mmcfd against the demand for 329mmcfd. Other sectors, including the industry, on the other hand, received 1,554mmcfd.

The same day a year  back, show Petrobangla data, the overall gas supply was 2,685mmcfd, including 906.6mmcfd of LNG supply.

Local gas meets major portion of the gas demand. Even a small fall in its supply bears significant consequences for the overall energy supply. But efforts to increase the local production remained almost absent over the past decade.

‘Bangladesh’s economy was never meant to support enough import of expensive LNG to substitute the local production deficit,’ said Shafiqul Alam, lead energy analyst, Institute for Energy Economics and Analysis.

In 2018-19, Petrobangla data show, the overall annual gas supply was 1.08tcf, the local gas accounting for over 89 per cent of the supply. The rest of the supply came from LNG import.

The gas supplies in subsequent years, until 2023-24, reached maximum 1.11tcf in 2020-21, when the local gas accounted for 80.5 per cent of the supply.

After almost 11 months in the current financial year of 2024-25, the local gas production accounted for 71.5 per cent of the overall supply of 0.93tcf. So far this year, 0.25 tcf of LNG was imported. The LNG import increased by over 100 per cent but it was not enough to meet increasing demand.

‘The gas crisis this year could have been worse had summer temperatures gone up as predicted,’ said Hasan Mehedi, member secretary, Bangladesh Working Group on Ecology and Development.    

Industrialists and household consumers of piped gas supply complained about gas supply substantially falling compared to the past year.

The number of areas where piped gas supply fell to zero increased, covering places right under the nose of the capital Dhaka such as Tongi, Gazipur, and Mawna, industrialists said.

‘We sent teams to find out where the increased gas supply as claimed by the Petrobangla had gone. We found no factories where the supply increased,’ said Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Saleudh Zaman.

Many knitwear factories were running at their half capacity due to the gas crisis. Gas is used both as a raw material and an alternative to generate power in captive plants as the national grid is highly unreliable.

Severe deficits in gas supply mean a significant shortfall in raw materials and frequent closure of factories for power outage lasted five to six hours a day in some areas. 

Other energy sources, besides gas, include oil, coal and biomass. The import of oil and coal is also unviable, particularly given the dollar crisis.

Industries consume 18 per cent of the supplied gas, followed by households using 11 per cent and CNG and fertiliser 5 per cent each.

Consumers are particularly angered by the gas crisis because their energy bills soared, particularly in the past few years while the energy crisis worsened. Industries saw gas price increase by more than double since 2023.

Low gas pressure was also evident in the long line of vehicles at CNG refuelling stations, waiting for hours to get a refill. Low gas pressure requires operation of the compressor longer to get the same output, meaning increased use of electricity.

‘Everybody is losing their time and money,’ said Farhan Noor, general secretary of the Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association, a platform of 539 refuelling stations.

CNG refuelling stations have been facing gas rationing since 2010.

Though the stations are expected to get gas 21 hours a day, the supply reaches operable levels around midnight, meaning that the drivers have to spend hours in queues when they should have been resting after day’s work.

‘You cannot dine at restaurants day after day when prices of everything are very high,’ said Poly Akter, a resident of Badda, who pays a fixed amount for piped gas supply that she rarely gets. 

The gas pressure at her apartment house was measured to be almost zero in the afternoon of May 29 by Titas officials. 

‘This is a new low in the public service history. There is no gas supply throughout the day,’ she said.

Many female household members in cities did not get a good night’s sleep for a long time for they needed to cook day’s meals after midnight, when piped gas supply improves. No gas supply emerged during day-time at all came as a new chapter in their life, potentially requiring skipping one or two meals every day.

Petrobangla director Rafiqul Islam said that the crisis would ease from June with the LNG supply increasing to 1,000mmcfd.

‘We need to keep patience. We are doing our best to minimise the crisis,’ he said.