Bangladesh has failed to restart one of its two floating storage and regasification plants, which was damaged by Cyclone Remal about two and a half months ago.
Authorities cited bad weather and poor visibility as reasons for resuming FSRU operations and were forced to send back six cargoes of LNG worth about Taka 3,000 crore.
Petrobangla said on Sunday that it could not give a timetable for the resumption of operations of the FSRU.
“The sea water is so murky that underwater visibility is impaired beyond bearable,” said Kamruzzaman Khan, director of Petrobangla.
The repair of the now-decommissioned FSRU from Singapore took about a month after Cyclone Remal hit Bangladesh between 24 and 28 May.
The FSRU returned after repairs about a month ago.
Petrobangla officials said that in order to restart the FSRU, deep sea diving would have to be carried out, which was not possible.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department warned that the monsoon over the Bay of Bengal will continue until the last week of August, meaning underwater visibility will remain poor for the rest of the month.
Bangladesh can import 1,100 million cubic feet per day of LNG through two FSRUs. The loss of the FSRU means a reduction in gas supply of 660 million cubic feet per day.
Industrialists and citizens have long been complaining about an unprecedented gas crisis.
To cope with the crisis, many industrialists began buying liquefied petroleum gas.
In many areas, it is not possible to supply gas to households during the day. In many areas, the pressure in the gas pipeline is so low that it is not possible to cook with it.
On Sunday, Petrobangla said gas supply was at 2,635.2 million cubic feet per day, while demand was at 4,000 million cubic feet per day.
The power sector received only 40 percent of what it needed to operate at full capacity. The fertilizer sector received 156.9 million cubic feet of gas per day against a demand of 329 million cubic feet per day.
Despite low electricity demand due to occasional rains, Bangladesh, whose installed capacity is over 28,000 MW, struggled to supply about 12,000 MW of electricity on Sunday.
Load shedding peaked at 376 MW at 1:00 a.m. on Sunday.
Energy expert Badrul Imam was surprised to learn that the restoration of the affected FSRU failed after such a long time.
“The procedure should not be too complicated and the teams of experts responsible for the work should be easily accessible,” he said.
“The inability to reconnect the FSRU to the grid underscores the level of inefficiency we face in the energy sector,” he said.
Bangladesh has been in a rather uncertain situation since an interim government took power on August 8 after Sheikh Hasina fled following her resignation following a mass uprising on August 5.
The transitional government took power at a critical time, amid the worst economic crisis in decades, which has been rocking the country for about two years.
Energy experts blamed the depletion of dollar reserves through imports, especially energy imports, as one of the main causes of the crisis.
Bangladesh imports LNG from both the spot market and under long-term contracts, which account for three-quarters of LNG imports.
Petrobangla officials said the government was required to pay for the six returned shipments under the import contract.
However, the supply contract allows Bangladesh to reclaim the paid supply if the FSRU is restored.
However, Petrobangla officials said fines would be imposed if deliveries were not made on time.
