Published: 09:48 AM, 14 August 2026
Highest Ever Load Shedding Eclipses Country Alongside Acute Gas Crisis
The country has been facing a gas shortage for more than three weeks. Amid the crisis, gas supply from Summit's terminal was suspended on Thursday afternoon due to adverse weather conditions, further reducing the supply. The fuel shortage is disrupting power generation. As the authorities have been unable to meet electricity demand, severe load-shedding has been imposed outside Dhaka for the past week. Under mounting pressure, load-shedding has now also begun in Dhaka. Relevant sources have informed that the magnitude of load shedding has hit 3757Megawatt (MW) which is so far highest in Bangladesh's history.
Two officials from the Energy Division and Petrobangla told Prothom Alo that gas supplies from Summit's terminal had been reduced from Monday evening to prevent the stock from running out. On Tuesday, the supply fell to 200 million cubic feet (mmcf). From Wednesday until Thursday afternoon, only 100 mmcf was being supplied daily. At 5pm on Thursday, the supply was completely suspended.
There are two floating terminals at Maheshkhali in Cox's Bazar for supplying imported LNG. The terminal operated by US company Excelerate Energy has a capacity of 600 mmcf, while the terminal operated by local company Summit has a capacity of 500 mmcf.
Excelerate's terminal was shut down following a fire on July 21. This reduced gas supplies and intensified the crisis. Gas shortages have disrupted everything from household cooking to industrial production and power generation. Long queues have also formed at CNG filling stations as motorists struggle to obtain fuel.
According to Petrobangla sources, Excelerate's terminal has two boilers, each with a capacity of 300 mmcf. One was damaged in the fire. Gas supply from the undamaged boiler resumed on August 6, while work is underway to restore the damaged one. Before restarting the damaged boiler, the terminal will have to suspend gas supplies for testing and inspection. This will result in a complete 72-hour shutdown of Excelerate's gas supply. Discussions are underway over when this will take place, but no specific time has yet been set.
Sources said Summit initially supplied up to 560 mmcf of gas per day after Excelerate's terminal was shut down. It subsequently supplied around 500 mmcf daily. A new LNG vessel carrying imported gas arrived in the Bay of Bengal on Monday. However, adverse weather at sea prevented LNG from being transferred from the vessel to Summit's terminal. Following instructions from Petrobangla, Summit began reducing its supply after 7pm Monday.
The country's daily gas demand is around 3.8 billion cubic feet (bcf). Under normal circumstances, supplies of up to 2.7 bcf are used to meet demand, including 1.05 bcf from LNG. At present, LNG is supplying less than 300 mmcf, bringing total gas supply down to 1.93 bcf from 2.03 bcf the previous day.
The shortage has put all six gas distribution companies under severe pressure. Titas, the country's largest gas distributor, has daily demand of 1.9-2 bcf and normally receives about 1.55 bcf. After the reduction in LNG supplies, its allocation fell to 1.2 bcf and dropped to around 1 bcf over the past two days. Supplies could fall further from Thursday evening.
Industry officials said there is no immediate solution to the fuel crisis despite various government initiatives. The government is largely dependent on weather conditions. Rainfall in many parts of the country on Thursday reduced electricity demand and eased load-shedding to some extent. Weather forecasts indicate that sea conditions could return to normal by Friday night. If that happens, Summit could resume gas supplies from Saturday.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit told Prothom Alo on Thursday night that if weather conditions improve by Friday night, LNG transfer from the vessel to the terminal would begin early Saturday. Summit could then resume gas supplies after Saturday afternoon. As demand for electricity and fuel is somewhat lower during the Friday-Saturday weekend, public hardship may be reduced.
To conserve energy and fuel, the government has also changed the opening hours of shopping malls, markets and shops across the country. Under the new rules, these establishments may remain open from 11am to 8pm. Authorities have also ordered all illuminated billboards to be switched off by 7pm and all decorative lighting to remain completely shut. The new measures took effect on Wednesday.
Energy Division sources said the authorities were trying to keep the crisis manageable. The power sector is currently facing the greatest pressure. Since virtually every household has access to electricity, priority is being given to power generation. Petrobangla has been instructed to ensure that gas supplies to power plants are not reduced. As a result, gas supplies to industries have been cut, while households may also face difficulties keeping cooking stoves running. To reduce hardship in rural areas, the government has decided to impose controlled load-shedding in Dhaka as well.
State Minister Anindya Islam Amit said load-shedding was being imposed in Dhaka at a manageable level to provide some relief to people in rural areas. He expressed hope that the overall power and energy situation would improve significantly from Sunday if everything goes according to plan.
Dhaka's electricity is supplied by two distribution companies, Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO). Officials from the two companies said load-shedding began in Dhaka on Wednesday night, starting at 11pm. Several areas of the capital experienced outages. Around midnight, residents of Panthapath, Jatrabari, Rajabazar, Lalmatia, Manipuripara and several other areas reported load-shedding to Prothom Alo. Some said their areas experienced multiple outages.
A senior DPDC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 250 megawatts of load-shedding would be imposed from 11pm to 4:30am, 200MW from 6am to noon, and another 200MW from 2pm to 4pm. No load-shedding would be imposed between 4pm and 11pm. No area would experience load-shedding more than once, meaning a Dhaka consumer would face only about one hour of load-shedding over a 24-hour period.
