Sadrul Hasan
It appears that for years the energy sector of the country is hamstrung by a kind of decision-making paralysis. Over the five-year tenure of the government of BNP-led four-party alliance, there was virtually no development in the energy sector. Thanks to the proverbial ineptitude and corruption characterizing the BNP-led government, no new power plant was put in place, not a single megawatt of electricity was put onto the national grid and no new exploration or production well was dug on the hydrocarbon sector. The result is the untold sufferings of the people emanating from the on-again off-again load shedding and power outages-not to speak of its ruinous impact on the economy. This persisting energy crisis was inherited by the present caretaker government from the previous regime of BNP-led alliance and industrial analysts believe it is likely to continue for the years ahead. Indecision, unnecessary delay in decision making process, bureaucratic tangles and fund constraints may be ascribed to the persisting energy crisis. Despite all the well-meaning intentions, it appears that neither the present caretaker government has been able to get things moving much over the last 18 months since it took over.
Over the last 18 months, the present caretaker government could not take any major decision that could bring any breakthrough in resolving the country’s energy and power crises. When it took over in January 2007, the country’s power production was about 3,600 MW against a demand of more than 5,000 MW. The gas production was about 1,800 million cubic feet (MMCF) against a demand for over 2000 MMCF, according to official statistics of the Power Development Board (PDB) and Petrobangla, the state energy and mineral resources corporation. Of course, the caretaker government took a fast-track move to buy captive power from the private sector to ease power shortage. But the move, according to observers, went in vain due to wrong policies. The government could only arrange 11 MW out of a huge 1,500 MW captive power across the country that are used by the private industry owners. The second move by the government was to install some costly rental power plants as a quick remedy to the problems. This move also failed to bring any positive result. Recent newspaper reports suggest that the selected private sponsors of rental power plants are yet to be able to start commercial production at their plants as per schedule.
The third move of the caretaker government was to set up some medium size power plants under the public sector. But that also appeared to have failed to move any length because of the delay and repeated changes in the tendering process. In the final stage of the tendering process, the government cancelled a bid of a Chinese company that was selected to set up a 100 MW plant in Chandpur district. Another bid by an Indian company for installing a 90 MW plant in Fenchuganj, Sylhet was also cancelled in the final stage, it was learnt. Similarly, the government also failed to increase the gas production in last one and a half year because of lack of a proper planning. Recently, at the fag end of its tenure, the caretaker government has invited international tender for leasing out the country’s oil and gas blocks-mostly off-shore and deep-sea blocks-to the international oil companies for exploration. But this move may be stuck up because of a case pending with the High Court, it was learnt. Besides, two neighbouring countries, India and Myanmar, have reportedly raised objection to the Bangladesh’s move for leasing out the off-shore blocks. All this, as analysts pointed out, may not augur well for Bangladesh in its bid to increase gas production, either from the current reserve or from new ones. It is believed that the country’s current proven reserve of gas may start depleting from 2011.
But there is a silver lining, as some observers pointed out. The country has a very prospective coal reserve which is about 3 billion tons. This is a promising sector that can be exploited quickly to tide over the nagging energy crisis. The government invalidated a draft coal policy of the previous BNP-led alliance regime. Meanwhile, a high-profile technical expert committee prepared the draft of a latest policy and submitted it to the government four months back. But still the draft policy is reportedly being scrutinised by the government. The Chief Advisor’s Special Assistant for Power and Energy Ministry recently said that the draft would soon be placed to the Council of Advisors for the final approval. But several weeks have already elapsed without any progress in this regard. Assuming there would be no new gas in the pipeline in the near future, the government reportedly took a decision that all future power plants would be coal-based ones. But despite this decision, the proposed coal policy still remained stuck up in the energy ministry.
During the formulation of the draft coal policy, it was learnt that the members of the expert committee were locked in a debate as to which kind of method should be allowed to extract the country’s coal resources. Based on expert opinion from across the world, only about 15 percent coal could be extracted through underground mining while through open pit mining it is possible to extract more than 90 percent of coal from a mine. But most importantly, there is a huge risk of accidents in case of underground mining while open pit mining is safe as there is no risk for explosion, landslides or leakage of dangerous gas. We can cite the example of China, which dominates in underground mining. In recent years, China experienced the tragedy of death of hundreds of miners in accidents deep down their underground mines. But in the open pit mining, record of death is almost zero, though it is true that it causes some problems to the environment as such mining needs dewatering of huge area. Nowadays, experts involved in the open pit mining claim that there has been a proven technology to minimise the environmental hazards and reconstruct the underground water level through re-injection of the lifted water. Germany has successfully applied this technology in its open pit coal mining in the Cologne region.
Informed sources said that after prolonged debate, the expert committee finally came to a conclusion that both the options of open pit and underground mining should be allowed, depending on the geo-technical conditions of the coal mine. The UK-based Asia Energy Corporation which obtained the Phulbari coal mine for its development, conducted a feasibility study in 2004 and submitted it to the government for approval for developing the mine through open pit mining. This company also plans to introduce the same water re-injection technology in the Phulbari mining. But so far there is no decision from the government on Asia Energy’s proposal. The government is saying that it would take a final decision about Asia Energy’s Phulbari project after the coal policy is finalised. As per original plan of Asia Energy, the Phulbari coal mine project was supposed to come into production from 2011. To materialise its plan, Asia Energy had initially discussed with different international financial institutions like Asian Development Bank and other banks as well. But due to the delay in decision making process the whole plan remained stalled, sources in Asia Energy said.
Worldwide coal has been playing a major role in power generation. As per statistics of the World Coal Institute, world’s 40 percent electricity was generated by coal in 2006 while 20 percent by gas, 7 percent by oil, 15 percent by nuclear, 16 percent by hydro and the rest 2 percent power generation was by other means. Many of the world’s top industrial countries are heavily dependent on coal for generating electricity. The countries’ percentage-wise dependence on coal include, Poland 93 percent, Israel 71 percent, Czech Republic 59 percent, S Africa 93 percent, Kazakhstan 70 percent, Greece 58 percent, Australia 80 percent, India 69 percent, USA 50 percent, China 78 percent, Morocco 69 percent and Germany 47 percent. Industry analysts believe that Bangladesh should follow suit without wasting time and go for extracting and utilizing the country’s untapped coal reserves to energize the engine of economic growth.
Dhaka Courier, Bangladesh
Date: 04-10 July 2008
Link: http://www.dhakacourier.net/current/
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