[🇧🇩] Energy Security of Bangladesh

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EU launches new project on regional energy connectivity in South Asia

The European union (EU) together with partners on Thursday launched an energy connectivity project in South Asia. This €5 million EU-funded initiative aims at supporting a more connected regional power market that delivers affordable, clean and reliable electricity to people in Bangladesh...

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EU launches new project on regional energy connectivity in South Asia

Prothom Alo English Desk

EU launches new project on regional energy connectivity in South Asia Courtesy: European Union

The European union (EU) together with partners on Thursday launched an energy connectivity project in South Asia.

This €5 million EU-funded initiative aims at supporting a more connected regional power market that delivers affordable, clean and reliable electricity to people in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, says a press release.

Enhanced regional energy connectivity will strengthen energy security, create jobs and enhance economic growth in the region, in line with the EU’s Global Gateway investment strategy.

European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Síkela, stated: “Energy connectivity powers our economies and daily lives. With the launch of this Global Gateway flagship, the European union is investing in cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable electricity that will strengthen resilience and unlock many opportunities for communities and businesses in South Asia. It shows that the partnership between the European union and South Asian countries is growing stronger.”

High-level government representatives, development partners, energy sector leaders, regulators, investors, and technical experts from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka gathered in Kathmandu today, Thursday for the regional launch of the Energy Connectivity in South Asia (ECSA) project, funded by the European union and implemented by Expertise France, to advance regional energy cooperation and cross-border electricity trade across South Asia.

The event, titled “Powering South Asia’s Energy Future: Advancing Cross-Border Electricity Trade, Investments and Energy Security,” marked the official launch of the four-year regional programme aimed at supporting increased cross-border electricity trade (CBET), enabling large‑scale renewable integration, enhance energy security and economic resilience, and catalyse greater investment in renewable energy infrastructure, including from Europe.

In her opening remarks, Véronique Lorenzo, Ambassador of the European union to Nepal, highlighted the importance of regional cooperation in addressing shared energy challenges. “Europe's experience in building an integrated electricity market has demonstrated that stronger energy connectivity creates more resilient, affordable, and sustainable energy systems. Through energy connectivity project, the European union is proud to work in partnership with South Asian countries to help unlock the tremendous benefits of regional energy cooperation and clean energy integration.”

Chief Guest Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation of Nepal, welcomed the initiative and underscored the importance of regional collaboration.

“South Asia possesses vast renewable energy resources and growing electricity demand. Enhanced cross-border electricity trade can help countries meet their development goals while improving energy reliability, affordability, and sustainability. Nepal looks forward to strengthening regional partnerships through initiatives such as ECSA.”

Nicolas Chenet, Director of Sustainable Development Department at Expertise France, noted the project's role in fostering dialogue and technical cooperation from both Europe and South-Asia by supporting stakeholder's engagement among participating countries.

“ECSA will serve as a platform for knowledge exchange, capacity building, and collaborative problem-solving. By combining European and South Asian experience, expertise and priorities, the project seeks to support practical pathways toward a more integrated regional electricity market.”

EU launches new project on regional energy connectivity in South Asia Courtesy: European Union

A keynote presentation on “Energy Connectivity in Europe – Governance, Experience and Lessons Learned” highlighted how Europe has developed interconnected electricity markets through coordinated transmission planning, common regulatory frameworks, market coupling mechanisms, and strong institutional cooperation. Participants discussed how key lessons—including transparent market rules, independent regulation, regional planning, and coordinated grid investments—could be contextualised to South Asia's unique context.

The first panel discussion, “Enabling Policy and Regulatory Environment – How Can the ECSA Project Complement Ongoing Initiatives” addressed how the ECSA Project can add value to ongoing regional processes.

The discussion identified opportunities to further deepen regulatory cooperation, advance the harmonisation of technical and market frameworks, strengthen institutional capacity, and enhance coordination among national stakeholders and development partners.

The second panel discussion “Cross-Border Electricity Trade – Investment and Energy Security Opportunities” focused on how regional power trade can stimulate investments in renewable energy generation, transmission infrastructure, and modern power systems while enhancing energy security across South Asia.

Participants highlighted the importance of predictable regulatory environments, bankable project pipelines, and regional cooperation to attract public and private investment.

Participants agreed on several priority areas for the project, including its contribution to strengthening regional policy dialogue, supporting evidence-based planning and technical studies, enhancing institutional and regulatory capacities, facilitating investment discussions, and promoting knowledge exchange on cross-border electricity trade and renewable energy integration.

The ECSA project covers Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and seeks to contribute to increasing regional electricity trade, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy security, and greater integration of renewable energy resources across South Asia.

About the ECSA project

The Energy Connectivity in South Asia (ECSA) project is a EUR 5 million four-year regional initiative funded by the European union and implemented by Expertise France. The project works with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka on advancing cross-border electricity trade, strengthening energy security, facilitating renewable energy integration, and promoting regional cooperation. Depending on the needs of the participating countries, the project can provide inter alia: policy and regulatory expertise, including from Europe; capacity building / trainings; technical studies, modelling tools, investment roadmaps, regional and national events and workshops; study tours; identification and promotion of joint renewable energy projects and interconnection infrastructure.​

 

[Saif]

The Financial Express | First Financial Daily of Bangladesh

Get latest stock share market news, financial news, economy news, politics news, breaking news, Bangladesh economy news at The Financial Express.

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Exploitation of existing onshore gas reserves

Published :
Jul 11, 2026 00:17
Updated :
Jul 11, 2026 00:17

Faced with an acute energy shortage marked by steadily falling domestic gas production (by roughly 150 million cubic feet each year) and severe disruptions in imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) due to conflicts in the Middle East, Bangladesh has been carrying out exploratory drilling into deeper, untapped formations and expediting offshore bidding for unexplored blocks. Meanwhile, under the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD)'s long-term plan, the 150-well drilling and workover programme has completed 29 wells. While it identified a theoretical potential of 271 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), it currently supplies only 126 mmcfd to the national grid missing its targeted production under the plan.

The 150-well programme faces challenges reaching its broader goals by 2031. The shortfall is primarily driven by declining output in aging gas fields, complex geological conditions and a lack of adequate infrastructure to transmit newly discovered reserves to the national grid. The premier drilling project missed its goals for several key reasons. Those involve older and major gas fields (such as Bibiyana and Titas)'s rapid depletion. This natural decline has outpaced the gains from the new wells. The state-owned BAPEX and its partner agencies have faced severe technical hurdles, including water encroachment, complex reservoir conditions, and general geological uncertainties that hindered maximum sustainable production. As reports go, approximately 77 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of newly confirmed gas reserves located in areas like Bhola, Jamalpur, Jokiganj, and Noakhali remain completely untapped due to a lack of the necessary transmission and distribution pipelines. Energy experts have attributed these lacunae to a lack of world-class technology and advised contracting international reservoir consultants to optimise the recovery rates of existing Petrobangla fields. In addition to the technological and infrastructural gaps affecting optimal utilisation of the existing fields, policy drift over time under different governments have also played its role. Together these have prevented a serious evaluation and execution of large-scale forecasts.

Under the circumstances, to attain natural gas self-sufficiency, the government must aggressively expand exploratory drilling into deeper, untapped formations like the 5,600-meter target at the Titas Gas Field. Also, it must prioritise connecting trapped regional reserves, particularly in Bhola, directly to the national grid to alleviate supply crunches and industrial stagnation. The efforts being taken to meet the industrial as well as other demands for natural gas through expensive import of LNG are not sustainable. So, to escape this expensive as well as unpredictable --- due to LNG's price volatility and geopolitical uncertainties--- option requires strict measures to reduce leakages in the transmission network and eliminate illegal connections. It would be worthwhile to add at this point that Bangladesh's onshore gas potential is far from exhausted. Geological studies show that only about one-third of the country's onshore area has been explored, and undiscovered natural gas resources are estimated to range between 8.43 Tcf (Trillion cubic feet) and potentially upwards of 65 Tcf. So, more efforts should be there to find new reserves. Apart from the initiatives implemented and proposed by the government including deep-level exploration at existing sites to unlock untapped hydrocarbon-bearing layers, vast untouched zones remain, including the highly prospective Chittagong Hill Tracts and the southern regions like Bhola. On this score, experts have pointed out that the hilly regions have seen only 14 exploratory wells drilled compared to over 160 across the border in Tripura, India.

The good news is that the government has been procuring additional drilling rigs to equip BAPEX for aggressive exploration, and is finalising preparations to invite international oil companies (IOCs) to onshore bidding rounds. Again, Petrobangla is conducting extensive 2D and 3D seismic surveys in high-potential areas such as Blocks 7 and 9, and around the Habiganj, Bakhrabad, and Meghna fields. Also, launching of the offshore bidding round 2026' by Petrobangla would hopefully bring positive outcome this time.​

 

[Saif]

https://www.newagebd.net/post/country/306159/fy27-energy-outlook-appears-largely-bleak

FY27 energy outlook appears largely bleak
Shakhawat Hossain 14 July, 2026, 23:51

The energy outlook for the current fiscal year appears largely bleak as power and gas supplies are not expected to increase significantly despite higher allocations for the sectors, energy experts say.

Power sector capacity charges will increase by over Tk 4000 crore, and costly gas imports will continue to bleed the economy.

Besides, dwindling domestic gas, resource shortages and adverse weather will pose stiff challenges for the newly elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government as it seeks to manage a fragile energy sector inherited largely from the previous Awami League regime, energy experts and economists said, assessing the overall FY27 energy outlook.

They also said an insufficient gas supply to industries and manufacturing units would hurt production and create supply-side constraints, undermining the FY27 inflation target of 7.5 per cent.

Shamsul Alam, energy adviser, Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said power supply from the country’s first nuclear power plant is expected by early next calendar year, but that will not be sufficient to meet the 10 per cent higher demand for electricity.

Having an installed capacity of 29,593 MW, the Bangladesh Power Development Board struggles to generate 15,000-16,000 MW during summer due to the unavailability of primary energy (gas, coal, furnace oil and diesel) in the import-dependent country.

Power consumers in vast rural areas face frequent outages, said Shamsul, referring to recent protests in several districts after the power shortage crossed 3,000 MW during a mild heatwave sweeping across the country.

Much-needed progress on renewable energy for the transition away from fossil fuels is also doubted by experts in the short term, following the cancellation of 37 solar energy projects by the interim government on the pretext of unsolicited deals. Humanrights articles

Still, some small relief may come from renewable energy if solar power plants can be deployed quickly, said M Tamim, vice-chancellor of Independent University and a former special assistant to the chief advisor of the caretaker government in 2008-09.

Otherwise, pressure on the government to provide power subsidies for costly, idle plants will grow further, he noted.

The BPDB has already calculated that capacity payments will go up to Tk 52,608 crore in FY27 from Tk 48,260 crore in the just-concluded FY26.

Of this amount, capacity charges worth Tk 5,356.8 crore will be gobbled up by the controversial coal-fired power plant of Adani in the Indian state of Jharkhand, and Tk 20,588 crore by Independent Power Producers.

As most of the power deals were struck during the previous Awami League government bypassing open tendering, Shamsul Alam suggested that the current government

should review them to reduce the overall cost of power generation.

Without cutting power generation costs, consumers may face another arbitrary power price hike, he said.

Since June, retail consumers have been paying 16.68% more per kilowatt-hour following government price hikes, which helped cut an extra Tk 14,000 crore annually in subsidy payments.

Still, about Tk 19,821 crore more in power subsidies beyond the initial allocation was incurred in FY26 due to energy price spikes driven by conflict in the Middle East, according to a statement by finance and planning minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury in Jatiya Sangsad on July 9. ExecutiveBranch

The conflict in the Middle East has yet to end due to fragile peace talks between Iran and the United States.

‘A re-escalation of full-blown tensions would be bad news for the country’s energy outlook in the current financial year,’ said Mustafa K Mujeri, executive director of the Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development.

The country has to rely on the costly spot market to import LNG to meet growing demand against falling domestic gas production.

Finance ministry officials said they provided Tk 1,200 crore as a subsidy for importing natural gas in FY26, over the initial estimate of Tk 6,000 crore.

Bangladesh produces roughly 1,600 to 1,700 million cubic feet per day of natural gas from aging domestic fields and imports around 900 mmcfd of LNG. The combined supply falls far short of the demand of around 4,000 mmcfd, resulting in a persistent supply deficit across power generation, industrial, and domestic sectors.

The government allocated Tk 2,349 crore in the FY27 national budget for the Energy and Mineral Resources Division to boost domestic gas production. The original allocation in FY26 was Tk 2,178 crore, but it was later revised downward to Tk 1,366 crore, according to budget documents.

It has also sought expressions of interest from international oil companies for offshore gas exploration, but these initiatives will take considerable time to deliver results.

Consequently, gas shortages will persist and deepen during storms in the Bay of Bengal, vice-chancellor of Independent University M Tamim said.

Noting that the cancellation of agreements for two new Floating Storage and Regasification Units by the interim government was a bad decision, he added that they could have expanded import capacity.

Floating storage and regasification units are ships that store imported LNG, convert it back into gas, and feed it into the natural gas pipeline network.

Operations at the two existing FSRUs also face periodic maintenance outages and often go inactive during rough weather in the Bay of Bengal.

On July 7-8, inclement weather cut LNG regasification to 761.1 mmcfd from 900 mmcfd the previous day, hitting both industrial and residential consumers, according to the daily update from Petrobangla.​