Editorial

Gas is not an infinite resource. The present average daily gas production is about 2300 MMCFD. At this rate our gas reserve may last for another 10 years at best. There are no signs of discovering major gas reserve on shore. Developments in offshore exploration are not also encouraging. Still the government has invested huge fund in expanding gas transmission infrastructures. There must be logic behind investing in gas infrastructure development. Experts consider that some of the projects are unnecessary. When these government will go for election most of these under implementation projects will remain incomplete. In this situation, Bangladesh must aggressively engage with regional cross border gas pipeline initiatives such as IPI & TAPI. Bangladesh must also talk with Myanmar and China whether about 300 MMCFD gas for Chittagong can be spared from their initiative. Construction of countrywide gas transmission network will allow us transport gas to all regions if we can successfully negotiate pipeline import of 500 -1000 MMCFD gas from any of the major cross border pipeline initiatives. Infrastructure development and exploration must go simultaneously.