The government is likely to order the CNG filling stations in and around the capital to keep shut between 9:00am and 4:00pm on weekdays. Petrobangla at a meeting with the representatives of CNG filling station owners on Wednesday decided the schedule for the closure of the filling stations at daytime.
Petrobangla and Power Development Board on Tuesday recommended to the government not to offload shares of state-run power and energy companies claiming that such divestment would not bring overall improvement in the crisis-stricken power and energy sectors. Officials of Petrobangla and Power Development Board made the recommendation at a meeting held at the ministry of power and energy with state minister Md Enamul Haque in the chair.
The new holiday chart for the industrial units in and around the capital will be ‘followed’ from today to tackle the on-going gas crisis. Petrobangla and different business associations last week decided to divide areas in the capital and its adjacent districts to seven zones and staggered the holidays in those zones. Industrial units, except processing units, at each zone will observe holiday on separate days in a week.
The country would not have faced any gas crisis now if the government paid a little attention to capacity building and modernising the companies under Petrobangla instead of becoming over-dependent on foreign oil companies to produce gas, experts say.
Bangladesh Oil Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) has decided to introduce gas rationing system in the industrial areas under Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) to tackle the existing gas crisis across the country. The gas rationing system will come into effect from Wednesday (January 27).
Due to persistent gas crisis in the city and its adjoining areas, Petrobangla will introduce holiday staggering in gas supply to industries across the country within a few weeks to save the fossil fuel. State-owned Petrobangla will place its proposal to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources for approval today.
Due to slow progress on the hydrocarbon exploration in the country's offshore blocks, the Petrobangla is expected to float international tender for onshore blocks soon.
Top officials of Petrobangla yesterday came under fire at a meeting of a parliamentary standing committee for go-slow policy in extracting gas as well as 'incorrect and misleading statistics' on production and reservation of gas.
Petrobangla is scheduled today to start formal negotiations with Irish company Tullow Oil on signing the production sharing contract for an offshore block. A delegation of the Tullow, led by a director, will sit with the Petrobangla officials, led by chairman Muqtadir Ali, to discuss the signing of the PSC for Shallow Sea Block 5. Petrobangla officials said the main talking point with the Tullow would be the disputed area within the 6,700 square-kilometre block.
Petrobangla and the US company ConocoPhillips have agreed in principle to include a provision in the model production sharing contract for two blocks that no exploration would be carried out in ‘overlapping areas’, as they concluded the first round of negotiation on Thursday. Officials said that although ConocoP had responded positively to the government directives not to conduct exploration in the disputed areas, they made a number of recommendations for inclusion in the PSC for block 10 and 11, in the four-day negotiation.
