Category: Energy and Power

Bangladesh’s worsening gas and electricity shortages are severely disrupting energyintensive industries, with plastic and ceramic manufacturers reporting sharp production declines, rising costs and growing risks to exports.

Industry leaders said many factories are operating at less than half of their capacity, while some have temporarily suspended production.

The crisis has intensifi ed following a technical failure at a fl oating LNG terminal, which reduced national gas supplies by around 450 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD).

The plastic industry has been particularly affected because injection molding, blow molding and extrusion require uninterrupted power and gas.

According to the Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association, around 300 plastic factories have suspended production, mostly small and mediumsized enterprises, while many others are operating at only 30-40% capacity

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has increased the retail price of liquefi ed petroleum gas (LPG) for August, raising the price of the widely used 12kg cylinder by Tk 70 following a sharp reduction in July.

Under the new pricing, consumers will have to pay Tk 1,598 for a 12kg LPG cylinder, up from Tk 1,528, according to a BERC notifi cation.

BERC fi xed the retail price of privately marketed LPG at Tk 133.15 per kilogram, including VAT, compared with Tk 127.30 per kilogram in July, refl ecting an increase of Tk 5.85 per kg.

The commission also revised prices for other cylinder sizes.

A 5.5kg cylinder will now cost Tk 732, while prices have been set at Tk 1,664 for 12.5kg, Tk 1,997 for 15kg, Tk 2,130 for 16kg, Tk 2,397 for 18kg, Tk 2,663 for 20kg, Tk 2,929 for 22kg, Tk 3,329 for 25kg, Tk 3,995 for 30kg, Tk 4,394 for 33kg, Tk 4,660 for 35kg and Tk 5,992 for a 45kg cylinder.

The price of autogas used in vehicles has also been increased by Tk 3.27 per liter, from Tk 70.40 to Tk 73.67 per liter.

India’s Union Cabinet has approved a ?23,731 crore (about $2.5 billion) national scheme to accelerate compressed biogas (CBG) production and turn agricultural and organic waste into clean energy, organic fertilizer and rural income.

The 10-year GOBARdhan National Circular Bioenergy Scheme will support the use of agricultural residues, cattle dung, press mud, municipal organic waste and other biomass resources for CBG production.

The program will provide assured offtake, stable pricing, capital assistance, pipeline connectivity and access to fi nance to strengthen the CBG value chain.

The government expects the scheme to drive nearly ten-fold growth in domestic CBG production.

India currently imports a signifi cant share of its natural gas requirements.

Expanding domestic CBG production is therefore expected to strengthen energy security, reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and create new economic opportunities for farmers, rural entrepreneurs and private investors.

BRAC University ViceChancellor Professor Syed Ferhat Anwar has urged Bangladesh to take a leadership role in environmental conservation, highlighting the country’s unique ecological assets, including the world’s largest mangrove forest, the largest delta, the longest natural sea beach and the world’s largest deep-sea submarine fan.

‘Bangladesh is the world’s largest delta.

We are home to the world’s largest mangrove forest, the longest sea beach and the largest deep-sea submarine fan.

Therefore, Bangladesh should also take a leadership role in global environmental and biodiversity conservation,’ he said.

Professor Anwar made the remarks while inaugurating a two-day programme marking World Environment Day and World Nature Conservation Day 2026 at BRAC University’s Merul Badda campus on August 8.

The programme was organized by the university’s Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research (C3ER), with support from Mutual Trust Bank PLC (MTB).

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance and Planning, Prof. Dr. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, has called for transforming renewable energy adoption into a nationwide social movement, alongside expanding local manufacturing of solar technologies to strengthen Bangladesh’s energy security.

Speaking at a seminar titled ‘Distributed Renewable Energy: The Future Solar Solution for Bangladesh’ at the Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) in Dhaka recently, Titumir said public awareness and citizen participation are essential for accelerating the country’s clean energy transition.

He stressed that creating public demand for renewable energy would encourage market expansion, while greater use of household solar systems could reduce dependence on imported fuels, including LPG, lower energy costs and improve energy security

Record temperatures and a strong El Niño are worseningd rought conditions across several regions, threatening crop production, increasing food prices and raising concerns over food security, climate campaigners have warned.

Climate advocacy group 350.org urged governments to act quickly to protect farmers and vulnerable communities and mobilize funding through higher taxes on fossil-fuel profi ts.

The warning comes as the world’s major oil and gas companies reportedly earned about $93 billion in combined second-quarter profi ts, while the United Nations has warned that around 50 million people could face acute hunger amid an exceptionally strong El Niño intensifi ed by climate change.

The Caribbean is experiencing moderate to severe drought in many areas, with conditions expected to persist into early 2027.

Bangladesh’s energy crisis has made one fact unmistakably clear: energy security cannot be built on imports alone.

Recent disruptions to LNG supplies exposed how quickly a problem at a single terminal can ripple through power generation, industry, transport and households.

The government’s proposed 10-year energy security plan is therefore timely.

Its reported focus on domestic gas exploration, LNG infrastructure, renewable energy, energy effi ciency and greater use of domestic resources refl ects the breadth of the challenge.

The plan is expected to be placed before the upcoming session of Parliament.

But the country has no shortage of plans.

The real defi cit has been implementation.

The new strategy must begin with a realistic assessment of what each energy source can deliver, at what cost and within what timeframe.

Domestic gas exploration deserves urgent priority because declining production is already undermining industries and power generation.

LNG will remain necessary, but excessive investment in import infrastructure could deepen the country’s exposure to volatile global markets.

Recent analysis has similarly warned that expanding LNG dependence could create long-term energy-security and fi nancial risks.

Renewables must be accelerated, but targets alone will not produce megawatts.

Grid constraints, fi nancing, land, storage and institutional capacity must be addressed simultaneously.

The strategy should be guided by national interest rather than by technology preferences or short-term commercial pressures.

The proposed plan should therefore be treated as a binding national energy roadmap-with clear priorities, deadlines, accountability and measurable outcomes.

Bangladesh cannot afford another decade of policy without delivery

UN Climate Change and China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment have launched a new partnership to strengthen institutional and technical capacity for climate transparency in developing countries, with a focus on implementing the Paris Agreement’s Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF).

The partnership’s fi rst joint activity was a hands-on training workshop for Asia, the Pacifi c and Eastern Europe, held in Wuhu from July 20 to 23.

The workshop followed a Letter of Intent signed by the two sides at COP30 and marked the beginning of practical cooperation through South-South collaboration, training and peer learning.

The 2026 Consultative Group of Experts (CGE) workshop brought together 27 experts from 24 developing countries, along with resource persons from the CGE, UN Climate Change, the Capacitybuilding Initiative for Transparency – Global Support Program (CBIT-GSP) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Participants shared national experiences, good practices and lessons learned in implementing the ETF through country presentations, panel discussions, technical sessions, interactive exercises and peer-to-peer exchanges.

The training focused on practical aspects of preparing Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs), participating in Technical Expert Reviews and the Facilitative Multilateral Consideration of Progress (FMCP), applying the ETF’s Modalities, Procedures and Guidelines, using fl exibility provisions, planning continuous improvements and strengthening institutional arrangements.

The program also included visits to Chery New Energy, the Wuhu Shipyard Research Institute and the Yangtze Riverside Protection initiative, providing participants with practical examples of climate action, technological innovation and green development.

Opening the workshop, Xuehong Wang, Director of Transparency at UN Climate Change, said implementation of the ETF has entered a new phase.

‘As of July 2026, 134 Parties have submitted their Biennial Transparency Reports, 86 have completed Technical Expert Reviews and 49 have participated in the Facilitative Multilateral Consideration of Progress,’ Wang said

Bangladesh has proposed importing natural gas from Myanmar through a cross-border pipeline as part of efforts to strengthen bilateral energy cooperation and diversify the country’s gas supply sources.

The proposal was discussed during a meeting between Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood and Myanmar’s Ambassador to Bangladesh, U Kyaw Soe Moe, at the Secretariat recently.

During the meeting, the energy minister said Bangladesh is facing a growing demand for natural gas and is keen to explore the possibility of importing gas from Myanmar through a dedicated pipeline.

He emphasized that closer energy cooperation between the two neighboring countries could contribute to regional energy security and economic development.

Responding to the proposal, the Myanmar ambassador welcomed the initiative and expressed interest in further discussions.

In my last column in this magazine I highlighted how the economy had been hit by energy crises.

In two weeks since then there been no improvement in the situation.

It has rather worsened.

Policy makers and experts don’t see a quickfi re solution to the problem.

Long hours of load-shedding have hit the factories hard.

Many industries have been forced to shut down for shortage of electricity, while many others are running at low capacity.

Among the affected are those producing daily essentials leading to price hikes of the commodities.

Small scale industries have long borne the brunt of the shortages of electricity and gas.

Now concern is growing for the bigger factories which are running out of diesel and assured supply of gas.

The supply of gas for household cooking is going down and down, while load-shedding has started tormenting even the dwellers in the capital city despite government’s efforts to spare them from the disruptions.

The rural areas have been suffering from frequent power outages for several months with the authorities trying to hide the facts from the privileged townspeople.

CNG-run three-wheelers are spending precious income hours in long queues before gas fi lling stations in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

The long wait gets longer.

What they get is too little to their requirement.

Stories about such sufferings are plenty on newspapers.

TV stations are covering the hardships with caution, while social media are going viral with tales of the torment.

Memes are erupting embarrassing the government.

Bangladesh has the installed capacity to produce up to 28,000MW of electricity.

Given the peak hour demand reaching up to 16,000MW we should not have any problem at all.

This does not tell all sides of the story.

We are unable to make an optimum use of our capacity for shortage of gas which is the most essential raw material for generation of electricity.

With Ashar-Srabon heat and humidity intensifying the need for electricity has increased so the well-todo city dwellers can get comfort with the use of air-conditioners.

During this time of the people the country usually witnesses a gap of 800 to 1,000MW of electricity between demand and supply.

The gap increased to more than 3,000MW some days this past week.

The immediate cause had been the mechanical faults and weather-related disruptions in the two gas storage and regasifi cation terminals off Maheskhali coast in the Bay of Bengal.

The platforms are known as FSRU, the short form of Floating Storage and Regasifi cation Unit.

FSRU is an offshore structure that is used to store liquefi ed natural gas (LNG) at certain temperatures and convert it back gaseous state so it can be pumped into onshore pipelines.

In spite of the price volatility arising from on-going US-Israel-Iran confl icts and the war in Ukraine Bangladesh can afford to import LNG, but the cargoes can’t be offl oaded when the FSRUs shut down.

The country has two FSRUs -one operated by Summit Power Limited and the other by Excelerate Energy, a US company.

Both suffered shutdowns – one for technical faults and another for rough weather – compounding the energy crises.

The impact of the disruptions has been huge and widespread.

The lesson: the import of LNG is not enough unless there is FSRUs to process the cargoes.

This led Power and Energy Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud to talk about a government plan to install three more FSRUs in the Bay so there is no shortage of storage and regasifi cation facilities for imported LNG.

That’s the plan that can’t be executed overnight or even in a year.

The minister has mentioned 2029 as the timeframe.

So until then what has to be done? Let’s put all sensible heads together to fi nd a solution.

A delay may turn deadly