Pipeline leaks delay LNG supply again to national grid

The authorities have deferred the supply of imported liquefied natural gas or LNG to the national grid again due to leaks in the pipeline.

Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company or RPGCL Managing Director Md Quamruzzaman says they could not complete the repair work due to bad weather.

He hopes they will be able to finish the repair and begin the supply of LNG to the national grid in the first week of June.

The state transmission and distribution company Titas Gas sees no way of resolving the gas crisis in Dhaka until the LNG supply starts as the crisis has deepened in different parts of the capital in the month of Ramadan, forcing people to suffer during Sahri and Iftar.

MH Ashraf Ali, director of operations at Titas, told bdnews24.com on Saturday the issue can be addressed only with the LNG supply.

A floating storage and regasification unit or FSRU of Excelerate Energy Bangladesh brought the first shipment of 133,000 cubic metres LNG from Qatar to Moheshkhali LNG terminal.

The Prime Minister’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury had told bdnews24.com at the time the supply of gas through pipeline from the terminal would start in the first week of May.

Two days later, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said they would start the supply by May 25 or 26, not the first week of the month.

Since there was no sign of the supply to start two days before the announced date, bdnews24.com contacted the government’s Gas Transmission Company Limited or GTCL.

GTCL Managing Director Ali Mohd Al-Mamun said the 91-kilometre long pipeline from Maheshkhali to Anwara in Chattogram under his company was ready for the supply.

He said RPGCL oversees the line from the sea to the terminal. “I can’t say anything about the improvement of their work.”

RPGCL MD Quamruzzaman said, “There is some problem in the pipeline. The repair work is taking time due to bad weather.

“Considering these, the date to start LNG supply in the last week of May has been deferred,” he said.

RPGCL officials said recently some leaks were found in the pipeline from the FSRU to the terminal.

Quamruzzaman admitted that there were leaks in the pipeline.