Published : 12 Aug 2026, 10:26 PM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:32 AM
Amid a drop in power generation due to a gas shortage, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Aninda Islam Amit is hopeful that the situation will improve somewhat from Wednesday evening.
Responding to questions from reporters at the Secretariat on Wednesday, he said that the government has started working on a new strategy from Tuesday evening to manage the power situation.
“We have launched a strategy. We began using strategy from yesterday evening. We hope that the power situation will improve somewhat from this evening, God willing.”
The state minister did not elaborate on what the strategy entailed.
Although the country has the capacity to generate power, many power plants are not running due to the inability to provide sufficient gas, he said.
“If you cannot supply enough gas, there will be a power crisis. If you cannot provide gas to the power plants, there will be no power generation.”
According to the Power Development Board and Power Grid Bangladesh, the most load shedding across the country was on Aug 10 at 3,757MW. On Aug 11, the highest load shedding was 3,465MW at 3pm. Along with the gas crisis, the decrease in production at several coal-based plants has also worsened the power shortage.
The state minister said that discussions with Malaysia have progressed to address the gas crisis. He said that after sending a letter to Malaysia, he and Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood held a virtual meeting with the country's stakeholders. Later, a Bangladeshi team went to Malaysia. He said, "In light of that, we are working on their offer. In continuation of that, we hope to get at least one cargo of LNG (liquified natural gas) from them."
On Jul 28, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman wrote a letter to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and spoke to him over the phone. Malaysia gave assurances that it would stand by Bangladesh in dealing with the gas crisis.
Amit said that work is also under way to bring LNG in ISO tanks, i.e. special refrigerated tank-containers, from Malaysia.
However, he commented that this is not an immediate solution. He said, “If LNG has to be brought through ISO tanks, it will be an entire process. Because as you know, ISO tanks are not available in the market. This is more of a medium-term solution. We are working on that.”
International media had previously reported that Bangladesh is working on the possibility of bringing LNG in ISO tanks from Malaysia.
The state minister claimed that the government is exploring “all the options at hand’ during the current crisis.
Highlighting the opinion of experts at a seminar on the energy sector at Dhaka Club on Tuesday, he said: “We are working on all the options available.”
Experts including Prof M Tamim, Prof Ijaz Hossain and M Shamsul Alam, energy advisor to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, spoke of various recommendations at the seminar.
Stating that the government is also taking advice from businessmen, Amit said: "We want to know whether they have any wisdom or suggestions. Even if you have any wisdom or suggestions, we welcome them."
