Former State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat has rejected criticism that the Awami League government made Bangladesh increasingly dependent on imported energy, describing the allegation as “falsehood”.
Arafat, a member of the Awami League’s Central Working Committee, said the government under Sheikh Hasina pursued two parallel approaches to address the country’s growing energy requirements. On one side, it sought to increase domestic gas production through drilling and exploration. On the other, it developed infrastructure to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) when domestic supplies were insufficient to meet rising demand.
In a press statement, Arafat said that when Sheikh Hasina became Prime Minister in 2009, Bangladesh was producing around 1,744 million cubic feet of gas per day from domestic sources. At that time, the country imported no gas.
According to figures cited by Arafat, around 155 wells were drilled during the Awami League government’s approximately 15 years and seven months in office, while six new gas fields were discovered. He claimed these efforts added a net production capacity of roughly 1,006 million cubic feet per day.
Domestic gas production subsequently rose to more than 2,750 million cubic feet per day around 2020, he said. The figures, according to his argument, demonstrate that the government did not simply turn towards imports while neglecting domestic exploration and production.
At the same time, however, Bangladesh’s demand for natural gas was rising. Economic expansion, industrialisation and increasing requirements from power generation and other sectors placed additional pressure on the domestic supply system. Arafat argued that relying exclusively on locally produced gas would therefore not have been sufficient to meet future demand.
He also pointed to the declining output of older gas fields and wells. Gas production from an individual well does not remain constant indefinitely. After prolonged extraction, production capacity generally declines, meaning that new drilling and discoveries have to compensate not only for additional demand but also for falling output from mature fields.
Arafat said the government therefore took steps to create approximately 1,000 million cubic feet per day of capacity for LNG imports alongside efforts to increase domestic production.
The former minister stressed that exploration for oil and gas is a long-term process involving substantial investment and uncertainty. Even when a new gas field is discovered, commercial production cannot begin immediately. Development, infrastructure construction and other preparatory work can take considerable time.
Against that backdrop, he argued that establishing LNG import facilities in advance was intended to provide an additional source of supply during periods when domestic production could not keep pace with demand.
LNG imports also require specialised infrastructure. Unlike conventional fuels, LNG has to be received through dedicated facilities and subsequently converted back into gaseous form before entering the national gas network. Arafat said terminals and associated facilities take time to develop, making advance planning necessary if the country is to respond to future supply shortages.
He further claimed that without the infrastructure developed for LNG imports, gas shortages could have become more severe at a later stage. In his view, combining domestic exploration with imports was a response to the changing balance between supply and demand rather than evidence of a deliberate policy to make Bangladesh dependent on foreign energy.
Arafat therefore rejected the description of the Awami League government as making the country “import-dependent” simply because it introduced LNG imports. He argued that such an assessment overlooks the increase in domestic production, the drilling of new wells, the discovery of new gas fields and the natural decline in output from older fields.
He said the present gas situation should be assessed through the broader supply-demand picture rather than by looking solely at whether Bangladesh imported gas. Domestic production, the declining output of mature fields, new exploration and drilling, newly discovered fields, and the infrastructure established for LNG imports all need to be considered when evaluating the country’s energy strategy.
The statement comes amid continuing debate over Bangladesh’s gas supply and the role of imported LNG in meeting national demand. Arafat’s position is that the shift towards LNG was driven primarily by the gap between growing consumption and the limitations of domestic production, while efforts to expand indigenous gas supplies continued alongside it.
