Petrobangla is suffering from a cash shortage
Bangladesh Oil Gas Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla) is going through various crises. The gas crisis in the country is constantly increasing. There is no supply according to demand. On the one hand, the supply of gas from its own sources is decreasing, on the other hand, imports are being hampered by the financial crisis. Petrobangla has not been able to pay its dues to international suppliers due to the dollar crisis for so long. In the meantime, despite the dollar resources provided by the Ministry of Energy, the company is now facing a cash crisis. Because cash is needed to get dollars. LNG has to be imported mainly with the money collected from the distribution companies. But the distribution companies themselves are also facing a financial crisis, especially since they owe huge amounts to government and private industrial customers, including fertilizer factories, and Petrobangla is not able to pay its dues on time. As a result, Petrobangla has to keep an eye on how much the distribution companies are paying every day.
In this situation, risks have arisen regarding gas import and supply. Because several LNG suppliers and foreign gas suppliers have informed Petrobangla that they will cancel the contract if the dues are not paid regularly.
Several senior officials of Petrobangla told our time, now our daily work is to come to the chairman’s room in the morning and have meetings. In those meetings, the main discussion is to collect money from various companies under Petrobangla and pay the money to the creditors.
Another official said that the situation has become such that the gas distribution companies are now not able to pay much money. Their income has also decreased due to various reasons. In addition, a huge amount of money is now outstanding as the biggest consumers of gas, power plants and fertilizer factories, have not paid their bills regularly. Although meetings have been held repeatedly to collect this money, the money is not being collected in practice. As a result, Petrobangla is now facing a cash crisis. Another official said that several international oil and gas companies (IOCs) and LNG suppliers have requested Petrobangla to pay its dues regularly. Gas suppliers have also warned that they may cancel the contract if they do not.
Meanwhile, a senior official of a large gas distribution company that collects gas sales money from Petrobangla and deposits it in Petrobangla’s treasury told our time, “Our revenue collection is also decreasing due to various irregularities.” He said, “We pay the most money by selling gas. Although it is the government’s money. Still, revenue collection has decreased due to various irregularities. Our company is now facing losses.”
The official also said that hundreds of factories are being closed due to the gas crisis. If large industrial plants, which have a lot of arrears, are going to be disconnected, there is lobbying so that their lines are not cut. On the other hand, thousands of crores of taka are not being collected from power plants for gas bills. As a result, the entire gas sector is now in a shaky state. The official said, “On the other hand, there is constant pressure from Petrobangla to pay the money; but if the company cannot collect the money, how will it pay?”
Incidentally, Petrobangla has been struggling to supply and deliver gas as per demand for almost a decade. According to the company’s sources, the approved load of gas in 8 customer categories is about 5,400 million cubic feet. An average of 2,700 million cubic feet is being supplied there. The country is suffering economically due to the lack of adequate gas supply. As a result, it is known that about 500 industries have already closed. In addition, hundreds of existing factories are facing a gas crisis. According to sources from the Ministry of Power and Fuel, various suppliers still owe a huge amount of money to the government. At the same time, there is pressure on organizations and companies to import and supply the necessary fuel. However, the necessary funds are not being released to import LNG or pay the creditors. Banks are not opening LCs as per the demand. A senior Petrobangla official told Amder Soomi that the dollar price has now risen to about 130 taka. 115 LNG cargoes have been planned to be imported this year. It costs an average of about 6 billion taka to import each LNG. Importing this huge amount of LNG is really a big challenge. In addition, Petrobangla is more worried about the continuous decrease in gas supply from domestic sources. In addition, Petrobangla has an outstanding debt of about 30 thousand crore taka. It owes about 22 thousand crore taka to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB). It owes another 10 thousand crore taka to other companies and organizations.
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