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Petrobangla-IOCs efforts needed to reach electricity to all by 2020

Speakers at a seminar observe

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
Joint efforts by Petrobangla and international oil companies (IOCs) for gas exploration aided by huge funds are required to make electricity available for all by 2020, speakers at a seminar observed yesterday.
Petrobangla, the state-owned Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Mineral Corporation, and IOCs should strengthen their efforts for gas exploration, otherwise the government will fail to reach the target, State Minister for Power Iqbal Hasan Mahmood told the seminar in Dhaka.
Bangladesh needs to set up more gas-run power plants to make electricity available for all by 2020, a goal set by the government.
The state minister also stressed the need for efficient professionals to achieve the government goal. However, Mahmood said attractive salary structure for the officials is needed to get better performances.
Mahmood also criticised a section of newspapers for publishing 'baseless' reports on corruption in tender process of power projects. "This ultimately slows down the implementation of the projects," he added.
The state minister said he has taken up various projects for the development of the power sector but every time has to face criticism from the press, slowing down the project implementation.
Petrobangla Chairman SR Osmani and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Chairman SA Mayeed presented keynote papers on 'Prevailing Scenarios in Power Sector: Problems and Remedies' at the seminar held at Sonargaon hotel.
In their respective papers, Osmani and Mayeed painted the existing power and energy situation and also identified problems and their possible remedies.
Osmani put emphasis on gas exploration efforts. "If the compa-
nies fail to find gas within 2016, the country will have to face a serious problem, as gas is the prime commercial energy for producing electricity," Osmani feared.
Referring to his company's future plan, the Petrobangla chairman informed the seminar it will need Tk 17, 203 crore to make electricity available for all by the stipulated time.
According to Osmani, Petrobangla now produces 1,309 million metre cubic feet per day (MMCFD), where the daily requirement is 1,375 MMCFD.
However, he said with the commissioning of Moulvibazar field in January 2005 and Bibiana field by December 2006 and development activities in other fields per day gas production will rise by 475 MMCFD.
According to the BPDB chairman, the company will require a total of $15.1 billion by the year 2020 to reach at the government's target of making electricity available for all.