Govt scrambles to ease power, gas crisis: Amit

The government is making “desperate efforts” to ease the ongoing power and gas crisis, but rough weather in the Bay of Bengal has disrupted LNG unloading, while further shutdown of an operating terminal remains a major challenge, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit said on Wednesday.
“Due to rough seas in the Bay of Bengal, cargo cannot be unloaded at Summit's terminal. The Excelerate terminal is operating at partial capacity; to run it at full capacity, the terminal would need to be shut down again for about 72 hours. This is a major challenge,” he said while talking to reporters at his office.
The state minister said the government was discussing the matter with Excelerate Energy, whose senior officials were scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
“A decision must be made on when to shut it down to cause the least public suffering. Discussions are also ongoing with businessmen,” he said.
Acknowledging the severity of the situation, Amit said the government understood the suffering of the people and was trying its utmost to address it.
“There is no disagreement that people's suffering is at its peak. That is why I repeatedly express regret to the public,” he said.
He said the disruption was largely beyond the government’s control due to the adverse weather.
“No one can do anything against natural disasters. We are helpless; we have to surrender to nature. When the weather normalises, we will be able to unload gas, and then gas supply will return to normal,” he said.
The state minister warned that inadequate gas supplies could trigger a crisis in power plants. He said the government had adopted a strategy to manage the situation, which was implemented from Tuesday evening.
“I hope that from this evening, the power situation will improve somewhat,” he said.
The government is also exploring additional LNG supplies as a medium-term solution. Amit said a meeting had been held with Malaysia and a team had been sent there to work on its offer.