Govt to drill 100 wells for gas in five years: adviser
The government plans to drill 100 wells in the next five years to explore gas, Prime Minister's Energy Affairs Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said yesterday.
“We are finalising the plans to drill 20 wells every year,” he said, adding that financing will not be a problem for drilling the wells.
Also, the government is in talks with Myanmar and Tripura to import gas, he said.
“But import does not mean that we can use gas indiscriminately. We have to focus on the demand side management and efficiency,” he said, stressing research and development in the power and energy sector.
He spoke at a seminar on “prospects and challenges for industries in energy and power sector of the seventh five-year plan”, organised by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry at its auditorium.
Chowdhury also requested the entrepreneurs to set up their factories in special economic zones as the government will ensure uninterrupted energy and power supply to such zones.
“It will be easy for us to provide utilities to the industrial units in the economic zones,” he said.
Chowdhury said power and energy sector witnessed remarkable progress under the sixth five-year plan, while the seventh five-year plan created huge investment opportunities for the private sector.
He urged the private sector to grab the opportunities of investment in the sector.
“Bangladesh will need minimum 34,000MW of electricity to attain 8 percent GDP growth,” he said, adding that 70 percent of the total population is now under electricity coverage.
Rahman Murshed, a member of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, said it is the right time to think about alternative energy sources.
“We have to cut system loss for energy efficiency.”
He emphasised power generation by using locally explored coal.
“We should discourage import of power and coal and encourage local production,” he said.
The government aims to add 12,853MW of power to the national grid in the next five years, which will require an investment of $21 billion, said M Tamim, a professor of petroleum and mineral resource engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
He said the seventh five-year plan focuses on long-term strategies to meet the primary energy demand for the next 15-20 years.
He suggested the government explore more gas. “If we totally stop exploring, the gas reserve will end by 2023.”
He called for a “comprehensive master plan” on energy and power to achieve the targets set in the seventh five-year plan.
DCCI President Hossain Khaled said some 2,000 applications for utility connections from private sector entrepreneurs are awaiting approvals from different agencies.
They have invested a huge amount of money in their factories, but cannot start production in absence of the utilities, he said. DCCI Senior Vice-president Humayun Rashid said secure, reliable and affordable energy and power are key to sustainable and efficient economic growth.
Speakers also urged the government to generate electricity from locally explored coal and reduce dependence on imported coal. They underscored the necessity of a realistic and flexible coal policy.
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company or BAPEX should go for modern exploration procedures, they said.
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