The government is successfully facing the challenges to supply fuel at affordable prices, says State Minister for Energy Nasrul Hamid.



Demand for gas is being met moderately at present and supply will improve by the end of the year, he said on Tuesday (Aug 6) at the inaugural of the South Asia LNG Forum 2019 in Dhaka.
Bangladesh was experiencing a rise in the demand for gas as part of its continued development and the government was looking into new sources to extract gas, he said.
As the market for LNG (liquefied natural gas) expanded in the country gradually, the minister said emphasis must be given to forecast gas prices in the next five to ten years alongside strengthening regional cooperation to find new extraction sources of gas.
It was stated in a paper presented at the seminar that a total of 3,300 million cubic feet of gas was being supplied in the country comprising a mixture of 750 million cft of state extracted gas with imported LNG.
The country had the capacity to supply 1,000 million cft of LNG per day while the current daily supply amounted to around 500 to 600 million cft.
Bilateral and tri-party geological surveys were being conducted to identify new gas mines and boost supply.
Two agreements have been signed with Qatar and Oman regarding LNG import while the process to spot import LNG from 17 organisations was under progress.
Around 40 experts from 22 orgainisations in 16 countries are participating in the two-day conference. The theme of the conference this year is ‘Utilising Natural Gas and LNG through Infrastructure Development and Distribution to Meet Increasing Demand for Power'.