energy
Power, energy sectors are saddled with $5 billion outstanding payment amid dollar crisis: Sources
The power and energy sectors of Bangladesh have been hit by severe cash crunch, especially the US dollars, piling up a huge backlog in payment of their import bills, official sources said this week.
According to official sources, the sectors’ cumulative outstanding bills have now jumped to about $5 billion of which the backlog amount in the power sector is about $4 billion (about Tk 43,093 crore), and the remaining 1 billion is in the energy sector.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid also admitted the severity of the crisis.
“Actually the crisis is not of local currency. Somehow we can manage it. But the main crisis is of dollar. We’re not getting dollar from Bangladesh Bank as per our needs,” he told UNB this week.
He noted that the power and energy sectors need at least $1 billion a month to meet payment obligations.
"But we’re just getting less than half of that,” he said, adding, “As a result, cumulative outstanding is rising every month”.
Read: JICA to assist govt in preparing power distribution plan for Dhaka
Sources said that the two main state-owned organisations' energy sector – Petrobangla and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporations have to spend huge amounts to import primary fuels like crude and refined petroleum and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from abroad.
Petrobangla also needs to pay foreign gas companies like Chevron to purchase natural gas to meet the local demands. All are paid in foreign currencies.
Similarly, the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has to purchase electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) in dollars.
In addition, it has to import 2500 MW of electricity from India of which 1500 MW is coming from Adani power plant.
Sources familiar with the situation said that under the existing arrangement, the BPDB pays some large IPPs like SS Power, Payra, Rampal and Adani in foreign currency while the other IPPs are paid in local currency but they are allowed to convert the payment in foreign currency as deals’ obligation.
Read: Govt approves import of 40 MW power from Nepal
“Each day we need at least 40 million US dollars from Bangladesh Bank to meet our payment obligation. But we’re getting 5-7 million dollars a day”, a top official of the BPDB told UNB, wishing anonymity as he is not authorised to talk to media.
Officials at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division said the Petrobangla and BPC also need huge foreign currency, particularly the US dollar to continue its petroleum and gas imports and also to buy gas from foreign gas companies.
According to BPC’s Annual Report, the total import of petroleum products was about 6.86 million metric tons and the total expenses of import was US$ 6 billion (equivalent to Tk 62,132.61 crore) in fiscal 2022-23.
For the financial year 2023-24, the BPC planned to import more petroleum products than the previous fiscal, officials said.
Petrobangla has also to import over 5 million metric tons from Qatar Gas, Oman Trading, and the Spot market spending US$ 4.5 billion. It has also to pay US giant Chevron to buy gas from its three gas fields where unpaid bills now stand at $300 million due to backlog in payment.
Nasrul Hamid said his ministry has regularly been negotiating with the Bangladesh Bank to get more dollar supply.
“But the central bank only advises increasing the price of electricity, gas and petroleum which is not frequently possible for a political government”, he said.
He also informed that his ministry was planning to receive a loan from Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) to ease the situation.
“But the central bank is not supporting the idea”, he added.
END/UNB/SH/F
Read more: Still 7.64 percent consumers have to bribe in getting electricity connections: Survey
Costly rental power plants keep getting extensions, even in the era of surplus capacity
Despite demand being nearly half of electricity generation capacity, the government of Bangladesh continues to extend the tenure of costly rental power plants.
The latest decision for extension of contract for a gas-based rental power plant was made in the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase on November 8.
As per the decision, a 55 MW gas-based rental power plant of Precision Energy Ltd. will get an extension of 5 years to their existing contract with the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
Under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), the BPDB will buy electricity from the plant at a tariff rate of US Cent 5.7 (equivalent to about Tk 6) per kilowatt hour while it has been buying electricity from base-load plants at around half the price.
Read: Despite surplus electricity, contracts of 10 rental power plants extended in four months
For instance, the government has been purchasing electricity from Summit-GE's Bibiyana 450 MW gas-fired power project at US 3.32 cents per kilowatt-hour, with a contract for a period of 22 years.
The government approved a PPA in October 2021 under which Consortium of (1) Edra Power Holdings Sdn Bhd, Malaysia and (2) Winnievision Power Ltd, Bangladesh, will set up the 660 MW base-load combined cycle plant and the BPDB will purchase electricity from the plant over a contract period of 22 years at a levelised power tariff of US 3.679 Cents (equivalent to Tk 2.94) per kilowatt hour to be run by local gas.
The move for continuing the extension of rental and quick rental power plants' contracts raised the eyebrows of the energy experts.
Many experts and power industry insiders believe that such a move to continue entertaining the costly rental power plants will increase the burden on the government for more subsidies, at a time when the sector has already been facing huge capacity payments' obligation with surplus capacity of electricity generation reaching about 50 percent.
Read: Power flow set up from Payra plant to Rampal sub-station
Last year, the government extended the contracts of at least 10 rental power plants with a new provision of “No Electricity, No Payment” but kept a fund allocation of Tk 6,564.08 crore to pay the owners of the rental power plants.
This time also Tk 1205.40 crore was kept as allocation while approving the latest extension proposal of Precision Energy's 55 MW Ashuganj gas-fired rental power plant which will be paid in in next 5 years.
According to the Power Division’s official statistics, as of September 13, 2023, the country's power generation capacity was 27,834 MW including off-grid renewable and captive power, while the highest generated in a day was 15,648 MW.
The BPDB official data shows the country generated 14,021 MW on September 26, while covering the excess demand by resorting to load shedding of 113 MW.
Read: 5 rental power plants with 457 MW get 2-year extension
The demand was decreasing with the coming winter and the country's power demand was recorded to be 10,954 MW on November 8 while on-grid installed capacity was showing 25,339 MW meaning that the surplus capacity was more than double at 14,385 MW.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, however, defended the extension of the rental power plants’ contracts saying that the deals were extended for “emergency necessity” to tackle the current situation when last year 10 rental power plants' contracts were extended.
“As there is a gas shortage, we have to run liquid-fuel based rental and quick rental power plants on full capacity to meet the demands," he had told UNB.
He also said these plants don’t oblige the government to make 'capacity payment' - i.e. payment for unused electricity, that was the case with some earlier contracts. “As a result, the cost of electricity from these extended rental power plants came down by 30-40 percent from the original cost," Nasrul Hamid said.
The government documents show that of the approved 5 plants in March last year, three belong to Summit Group, one belongs to Dutch-Bangla Group and one to Orion Group.
'Admit the mistake first'
About the country's growing surplus electricity and extension of rental power plants, vice president of Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Prof M Shamsul Alam said: “There will be a big indiscipline in the power sector as pressure for private sector’s capacity payment will continue to go up while import of primary fuel will be increasing. Finally, it will lead to energy insecurity."
Read: Deal period with rental, quick rental power plant owners can’t be extended: BPDB Chairman
In such a situation, he said, the only way-out is that the government has to admit first it has done a mistake by giving permission to the private sector for excessive power generation without consideration of the demand and then change the current policy and strategy.
Otherwise, the situation will be more difficult to manage as pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is coming to raise electricity tariff again. If so, it will further push up inflation, he added.
Efforts on to invite int’l bidding within a month for gas exploration: Energy Secretary
Bangladesh government's Energy Secretary Dr. Md. Khairuzzaman Mozumder has said that the government has planned to invite international bidding for offshore hydrocarbon exploration within a month.
“Last week the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the New Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC). Now we’re making our highest efforts to go for international bidding within a month,” he told a webinar on Wednesday (August 09, 2023).
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources organized the webinar to observe “the National Energy Security Day”.
Next two years to be critical for energy sector: Nasrul
The energy secretary said the government is assuming that this time a huge response will be received from international oil companies (IOCs) as the Model PSC has been modified making it more attractive.
“We’re already getting some positive indications in this regard,” he added.
He said the government has been working for ensuring energy security and part of it LNG is being imported to supply the gas to the industries on priority basis.
Dr Tawfiq Elahi said that the issue of gas exploration has to be on a realistic basis.
Improving energy efficiency will be important for Bangladesh: WB
“It’s unrealistic to determine a gas reserve in any place until we find gas through drilling, “he said adding, the possibility of having new 10 trillion cubic feet (TCF) at different locations could be a class-room lecture.
“But until we drill and find it, we should not have prospects of 10 TCF gas,” he said criticizing Prof Anwar Hossain’s statistics about prospects of new gas in the country.
Anwar Hossain in his speech said if the government drills 18 new wells, it can find 9-10 TCF gas easily as the country’s success ratio in drilling is 1:3.
Mollah Amnzad said that drilling of wells is a very costly matter. So, the foreign companies can be engaged in this regard.
He mentioned that the government is experiencing a dollar crisis and now it’s failing to pay the IOCs, private power producers and also the LNG suppliers.
Energy Division achieves 103.04 percent progress in RADP implementation
He said the government has made many good policies. But its problem with implementation has now created the current energy crisis.
Power secretary Habibur Rahman said that the government has taken a move to generate 2000-3000 MW of electricity from renewable sources in the next 2-3 years.
Bangladesh encourages enhancing share of renewable energy in fuel-mix: Nasrul
PM to visit Rome later this month to attend UN Food Systems Summit; bilateral deals on energy, migration likely
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to visit Rome, Italy later this month to discuss bilateral issues and attend the UN Food Systems Summit.
The 2023 UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment will be held in Rome, Italy on July 24-26 at the premises of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
It will be hosted by Italy in collaboration with the Rome-based UN Agencies (FAO, IFAD, WFP), the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, and the wider UN system.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to be in Rome from July 23, said a diplomatic source.
Also read: PM Hasina to visit Japan on April 25-28
She is likely to have a bilateral meeting with her Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni during the visit.
PM Hasina will speak at the Food System Summit in Rome while her Italy visit is likely to see the signing of half a dozen bilateral documents in the areas of energy, migration, ICT and cyber security.
Bangladesh and Italy have been discussing a possible memorandum of understanding (MoU ) on mobility and migration — to encourage regular migration and prevent irregular ones.
“We want to go further in our cooperation on migration issues. In particular, creating and enlarging the existing legal channels or legal pathways for migration while stemming the irregular one,”
Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh Enrico Nunziata told UNB in an interview recently.
Also read: PM leaves Geneva for home ending 3-day visit
The envoy said the two countries have to deepen cooperation for preventing irregular migration, trafficking and so on.
Ambassador Nunziata recalled one of the deliverables during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Italy in 2020 — reinsertion of Bangladesh in the list of countries whose nationals can benefit from a quota for work.
Talking about collaboration in the defence sector, he said there is possibility of collaboration and transfer of know-how as well on a win-win basis. “So this is another important sector.”
The ambassador said a memorandum of understanding in the cultural sphere for programmes of cultural exchanges is also in the pipeline.
Also read: PM to brief media on the outcome of her Switzerland visit on Wednesday
The Italian ambassador also said they want to collaborate in the shipbuilding industry for the Navy or Coast Guard by sharing know-how and technologies with Bangladesh. “I mean that level of know-how that Bangladesh has not reached in shipbuilding yet. Together we can do more on that in shipbuilding as well as in other sectors.”
The 2023 UN Food Systems Stocktaking Moment will build on the momentum of the 2021 Food Systems Summit and will create a conducive space for countries to review commitments to action that were made during the Summit, share stories of success and early signs of transformation, maintain the momentum for bold acceleration and bold action to further the resilience of food systems, advocate for their adaptation to climate change, ensure they contribute to communities’ resilience to further shocks and crises, and boost the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Read more: PM Hasina leaves for Geneva to attend World of Work Summit
Coal shortage: Production at another unit of Payra power plant may suspend after June 2
Operation of another unit of 1,320 MW coal-fired Payra power plant is going to be suspended soon due to coal shortage, according to Bangladesh-China Power Company (Pvt.) Limited (BCPCL) officials.
The plant has two units each having 660 MW and the first unit of the two has already been shut following the coal crisis.
"Now the remaining unit may run until June 2", said Shah Abdul Moula, plant manager of the BCPCL.
BCPCL, a joint venture of the Chinese firm China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC) and Bangladeshi state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (NWPGCL), is the owner and operator of the Payra power plant.
Read more: IPPs call for uniform import duty on primary fuels
The plant manager said that the plant is currently operating one unit having 660 MW while another 660 MW unit was closed last week.
Moula said that the overdue payment against the coal import actually created this critical situation.
The overdue amount now stands at more than $400 million.
"But recently we received a permission from Bangladesh Bank to pay $50 million to the coal supplier against the overdue", he said adding that this will help arrange to resume coal import.
Read more: Separate entity needed to deal with matters relating to coal: Energy experts
But still it will take about a month to receive the coal supply and we hope we may not get before June 28, said another official of the BCPCL.
According to official sources, the Payra power plant needs to import 3 lakh metric tonnes of coal every month to operate the plant in full swing.
They said the BCPCL normally opens LC through state-owned Sonali Bank to import the coal. But recently Sonali Bank regretted opening the LC due to the dollar crisis.
Admitting about the problems, the BCPCL officials said the authority has already communicated the issue to the Power Division to take necessary measures.
Read more: Committee to review existing deals on coal purchase for power generation
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on March 21 last year inaugurated the 1320 MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant at Patuakhali's Payra on a day when she also declared the country's 100 percent electricity coverage.
This milestone achievement puts Bangladesh ahead of India and Pakistan among the South Asian nations to light up every house with electricity.
BCPCL set up the plant using Ultra Supercritical Technology at over $2 billion as part of a development partnership on 982.77 acres of land.
The Export-Import Bank of China lent $1.96 billion for the project. The company started operation in 2016.
Read more: Bashundhara Group wins bid to supply 8 million MT of coal to Rampal power plant
This kind of coal-fired power plant using Ultra Supercritical Technology is the thirteenth in the world and seventh in South Asia.
The Ultra Supercritical Technology used for this plant aims at protecting the environment in line with the government's policy, officials said.
After undergoing test runs for about five months, the first unit of the Payra power plant started commercial operation in May, 2020. In October, 2020, the second unit of the 660 MW plant, a joint venture of Bangladesh and China, started its commercial operation.
The Payra and another 1320 MW Rampal power plants have been implemented targeting the power evacuation from both the two plants and transmit power to Dhaka city and adjoining areas to meet growing power demand.
Read more: Illegal coal furnaces leave Khulna gasping for breath & answers
The Payra power plant is burning some 13,000 tonnes of coal a day. It has a 76.30 acre dumping zone where 25 years’ worth of by-product can be kept.
The plant is currently importing coal from Indonesia. It has its own jetty whose conveyor belts can unload 3,200 tonnes of coal every hour from four vessels at the same time.
Bangladesh's power generation capacity reached 25,514 MW from just 3200MW in 2009, according to the data.
IPPs call for uniform import duty on primary fuels
Removal of discrepancies in the import duties imposed on primary fuels, which are used as inputs in power generation, can reduce the government’s subsidies in the power and energy sector.
The notion is being put forward by the private power producers of the country, also known as IPPs (independent power producers).
They are claiming that the discriminatory import taxes on primary fuels - furnace oil (diesel), coal, and gas (LNG) - ultimately favours the coal-fired power plants that projects the government’s biases towards ‘the dirtiest fuel’.
Currently there is a 5 percent duty on the import of coal, which rises to 34 percent on furnace oil, aka heavy fuel oil (HFO), and 22 percent on gas.
Read more: Ilisha-1 country’s 29th gas field: Nasrul Hamid
As a result, the price per MMBtu (metric million British Thermal Unit) of coal comes to Tk 10-11 and when power is generated from coal, it costs Tk 12-13. After adding 5 percent import duty, the cost of electricity from coal-fired power plants becomes Tk 13-14.
On the other hand, the price per MMBtu of HFO comes to Tk 11-12 and the power generation from the HFO costs Tk 11-12 due to its higher heat value. But when the 34 percent import duty on HFO is added, its power generation cost becomes Tk 15-16 per unit.
In the same way, the cost per MMBtu of imported gas is Tk 11-12 and its power generation cost becomes 10-11 due to its higher heat value. But after adding the import duty of 22 percent, the per unit electricity generation cost from gas-fired plants goes up to 13-14 per unit.
“If the discrepancies are removed from duty regime, and import duty on all fuels is made uniform at 22 percent, the production cost of electricity from diesel-fired plants will be lower than that of coal-fired power plants,” said Imran Karim, former president of Bangladesh Independent Power Producers Association (BIPPA), the trade body representing the interests of private power producers.
Read more: Many big industries using illegal gas connections: Nasrul Hamid
Karim, also the vice chairman of Confidence Group, a leading firm in private power generation, said the duty should be uniform considering the government’s commitment to support cleaner fuels - coal being the original dirty fuel. Furnace oil of course is no better.
“The government will receive more revenue from imported fuels, if the duty on all fuels are equalised,” he added.
According to the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s estimate, in the current fiscal 2022-23, the power and energy sector will require over Tk 23,000 in subsidies to cover its losses.
Of this, the power sector will require Tk 18,000 crore while around Tk 6000 crore would go on primary fuels.
Read more: New PSC: Petrobangla awaits final nods to invite int’l bidding for offshore blocks
Earlier, the loss in the sector was estimated much higher at over Tk 70,000 crore due to the excessive price hike of gas, coal and petroleum fuel following the war in Ukraine that began in February 2022.
But after the enhancement of fuel prices on the domestic market by more than 40 percent pn average and power tariff by more than 15 percent, the losses came down and subsequently the requirement for subsidy was also reduced to around Tk 23,000 crore, said officials at the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.
Private power producers claim that if the import duty on coal and furnace oil were made the same as that on gas, i.e. 22 percent, it would reduce overall costs and thus reduce the subsidy as well.
“Because, the power generation by furnace oil-based plants will automatically go down and it will ultimately have an impact on the overall tariff structure in the power sector by seeping through to both the wholesale and retail levels,” said an IPP plant operator.
Read more: Petrobangla initiates move to end foreign company’s monopoly in pre-paid gas metering system
Power Cell director general Mohammad Hossain said that both coal and furnace oil are dirty fuels, so by the IPPs’ logic, the import duty on these two fuels should be higher than on gas - not uniform.
“The import duty on coal and HFO should be equal and import duty on gas could be comparatively lower as it is the cleanest of the three,” he said.
JENESYS Reporting Session 2022 held in Dhaka
Embassy of Japan held a reporting session for “JENESYS2022” participants at the ambassador’s residence in Dhaka on Monday (May 22, 2023).
JENESYS (Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths) is an initiative by the Government of Japan to promote people-to-people exchange programmes between Japan and the Asia-Pacific region, according to a press release.
Read more: 2023 is the 1st year for next 50 years of Dhaka-Tokyo relations: Ambassador Iwama
The programme started accepting Bangladeshi participants in 2015. Approximately 23,000 young people have participated in this programme in the Indo-Pacific region since then.
This year, 19 youths participated and visited Japan under two themes, namely, “Agriculture” and “Energy’’.
In Monday’s reporting session, the participants shared their experiences from their visits to Japan and exchanged opinions with government officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Energy, Power and Mineral Resources of Bangladesh, and with staff of Embassy of Japan, the release said.
Read more: India’s NCGG completes training programme for 58th batch of Bangladeshi civil servants
Ambassador Iwama hoped that this year’s JENESYS participants would reflect on their knowledge to promote mutual trust and lay the foundation for friendship and cooperation between Japan and Bangladesh, it added.
Ilisha-1 country’s 29th gas field: Nasrul Hamid
Ilisha-1 in Bhola district was announced to be the 29th gas field of Bangladesh where substantial gas was found recently.
“We believe, Ilisha-1 has a reserve of 200 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas. The entire Bhola area, including this one, has a reserve of 3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas,” State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told reporters today (May 22, 2023) during a briefing at his Dhaka residence while formally announcing the discovery of the gas field.
He said this is great news for the people of the country.
Also Read: 3 strikes for Ilisha-1: another drill test finds gas
Ilisha-1 is located in an union in Bhola district, about 182 km from the capital city Dhaka.
On March 8 this year, Ilisha-1 excavation started in the Maler Hat area of Ilisha union under Bhola Sadar upazila and the drilling was completed successfully on April 24 through the Drill Stem Test in three levels at a depth of 3,475 metres.
The state minister said earlier that gas was found in different wells under Bhola north and Bhola south structures.
He said a plan is being prepared to bring gas from the Bhola area to Dhaka through a pipeline where many industries are facing a nagging gas shortage.
Read more: Chevron inks deals to dig more wells at expanded Bibiyana gas field
A pre-feasibility was conducted and now work is in progress for conducting a feasibility study on the issue, he noted.
Nasrul Hamid said it will take about 3 years to bring the gas from Bhola to Dhaka through a pipeline.
Initially, he said, a private company has signed a contract to bring a total of 25 mmcfd gas from Bhola through a big trailer. Primarily, it will start with 5 mmcfd.
He informed that the government has a plan to create a ring-fence of pipeline covering Bhola, Barishal and Dhaka to use the gas for this region while another ring-fence will be created covering the districts in Dhaka, Sylhet and others.
Read more: 2nd phase of directional drilling at Srikail North Gas field starts
He said the commercial value of the gas in Bhola will be Tk 6500 crore if calculated in local value and Tk 26000 crore in the value of gas being imported.
Nasrul Hamid said the Ilisha-1 gas field’s discovery was announced after completion of necessary drilling and other works.
Currently, about 2300 mmcfd gas is being produced from 22 gas fields in the country, while about 700 mmcfd gas is being imported to meet the demand of about 4000 mmcfd, leaving a deficit of about 1000 mmcfd.
Apart from Ilisha-1, two Bhola gas fields have around 200 mmcf production capacity, while the production hovers between 80-85 mmcf.
Read more: China’s Sinopec to drill for gas at Well No-10 of Sylhet Gas Field
Therefore, around 120 mmcf surplus capacity remains unused in the eight wells of the Shahbazpur and Bhola gas fields.
Due to the lack of pipeline and transmission facilities, the government of Bangladesh was unable to supply the surplus gas from the Bhola field to energy-hungry industrial zones in Dhaka and elsewhere.
Bangladesh needs $170 billion investment in power,energy sector by 2041: Nasrul
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said that Bangladesh requires $170 billion dollars investment in the power and energy sector by 2041.
He said while addressing a session on "Strengthening the Future of Economic Growth of Bangladesh" at the high-level discussion meeting titled "U.S.-Bangladesh Economic Partnership: Shared Vision for Smart Growth" organized by the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC on Tuesday.
“There are profitable investment opportunities in different sectors and sub-sectors like LNG, renewable energy, smart grid, smart distribution, electric vehicle infrastructure, onshore and offshore hydrocarbon exploration,” said the state minister.
Read More: Investment in Bangladesh will bring huge success: PM Hasina to Japanese businesses
He also said that upgrading gas infrastructure, setting up petrochemical industries, reducing GHG emissions, smart gas distribution are among the sectors where US companies can invest and the government will provide special incentives to foreign investors.
He said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given the vision of building a smart Bangladesh to build the golden Bangladesh as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“It needs financial investment as well as technical and knowledge-based cooperation to realise the vision,” he said adding that investment should come not only from multilateral development agencies, but also from the public and private sectors.
Read More: Momen due to leave for US Friday with trade and investment high on agenda
Eric Walker, president of Chevron's Bangladesh office and Dr. John Ardil, vice president of Exxon Mobil also addressed the event.
Hydrocarbon Unit signs MoU with BUET to enhance research in energy sector
The Hydrocarbon Unit of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to enhance research and capacity building in the country’s energy sector.
The two organisations signed the deal at a function at BUET on Monday where State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Division Nasrul Hamid was present as chief guest.
Welcoming the agreement, the state minister said that this will help the Hydrocarbon Unit to prepare accurate data and a proper plan for the energy sector.
The MoU will also expand the field of research in the energy sector, he said.
Read more: Hydrocarbon Unit signs MoU with BUET to enhance research in energy sector
“Coordinated initiatives are necessary to ensure a sustainable energy system,” Hamid added.
He underscored the need for a coordinated network of researchers, academics and professionals to make a plan successful.
Success will certainly be achieved if the planning and activities are carried out by estimating the needs of the future, he added.
With BUET Vice-Chancellor Professor Satya Prasad Majumdar in the chair, the event was also addressed, among others, by Energy Secretary Dr Md Khairuzzaman Majumder, BUET Vice-Chancellor Professor Abdul Jabbar Khan, Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Director Professor Farsim Mannan Mohammadi and Director General of Hydrocarbon Unit Tahmina Yasmin.
Read more: Plan to float int’l bidding for offshore hydrocarbon exploration dropped before election