Bangladesh has decided to increase coal lifting in the coming years as the persisting energy crisis that has continued to plague life and business is unlikely to ease anytime soon.
The decision came as Japan, the world’s leading LNG importer, announced that long-term Liquefied Natural Gas contracts until 2026 have been sold out.
However, the decision to lift coal from newly-opened mines will take time to impact the country’s energy supply, as new coal mines need several years to be developed, officials said.
With only two long-term LNG supply contracts, Bangladesh saw dozens of its power plants go out of operation and production to halve at factories because of a gas shortage after being priced out of the LNG spot market.
‘We need energy. We have to survive,’ Nazmul Ahsan, chairman, Petrobangla, the government-owned national oil company, told New Age, after sharing their decision to lift coal from the Dighipara coal mine in Dinajpur.
