New Delhi, Sep 19 (IANS): Bangladesh is facing recurring shortages of gas and electricity despite decades of investment, as experts blame policy choices that prioritised foreign investment over building national capacity, a new report has said.
Economist and energy activist Anu Muhammad told Bangladesh-based The Daily Star that poor policy and vested interests rooted in laxity has left Bangladesh dependent on costly imported LNG, exposed to global price swings and vulnerable to technical failures at terminals.
There is no gas day after day along with four to five hours of load-shedding every day, Muhammad said, adding that, “I have never seen a situation where both gas and electricity were in such short supply at the same time.”
Muhammad said the crisis has roots in policy shifts from the 1990s that opened the energy sector to private players under production‑sharing contracts, leaving national institutions underdeveloped.
The policies “were broadly shaped by a neoliberal approach, with the World Bank, IMF, ADB and JICA playing important roles in shaping the policies and ideas behind it.” The poor approach was based on judging investment mainly by its potential for profit.
He slammed a 2009 deal made by Sheikh Hasina government with ConocoPhillips as unfavourable to Bangladesh and said promised offshore production never materialised after parts of the work were subcontracted abroad to a Chinese company.
He also criticised the 2010 Power Sector Master Plan prepared by JICA, saying no Bangladeshi experts were on the committee and that the plan steered the country toward LNG imports, coal‑fired plants and nuclear power.
“Renewable energy remained marginal, with no focus on building national capability. the government built LNG terminals with the US and other foreign companies, expanded LPG use, added coal-fired power plants and began work on the nuclear plant. It borrowed heavily to finance these projects,” the report cited the expert.
He also mentioned long-term consequences of making imported LNG a major part of Bangladesh’s energy mix. “The cost is extremely high compared to our own gas; it costs nearly 60 times as much for the same amount of gas as our own gas exploration,” Muhammad said.
He also flagged that LNG infrastructure creates environmental problems, while LNG leaves Bangladesh exposed to fluctuations in global energy prices.
