Bangladesh is losing roughly 150 million cubic feet of domestic gas production each year as overhauls of ageing wells fail to yield expected volumes, leaving the country unable to bridge the shortfall through its limited liquefied natural gas import infrastructure.

Soaring spot-market LNG prices and supply constraints under long-term contracts with Qatar have compounded the deficit into a multi-front energy crisis. Energy industry figures say converging domestic and international pressures leave the government with no swift resolution, while state energy firm Petrobangla insists no lasting fix is possible without raising domestic extraction.

The strain became clear in recent days after damage to a floating terminal reduced total daily gas supply to 2.15 billion cubic feet, down from the normal 2.6 billion to 2.7 billion cubic feet. The resulting deficit disrupted factories, compressed natural gas filling stations, households and power generation across several regions, with Petrobangla unable to provide a specific date for the terminal’s return to service.

“The technical team said repairs on the floating terminal are in the final stage,” Engineer Md Rafiqul Islam, director of operations and mines at Petrobangla, told Bonik Barta. “But it can’t yet be specified when operations will restart.”

The Petrobangla director said domestic wells continued to underperform, with US supplier Chevron posting steep annual declines alongside falling output from local state-owned producers. The import infrastructure intended to offset those losses also remained impaired, he added.

The government has launched several measures to stem the crunch, importing LNG at higher prices to maintain supply while moving to expand long-term import capacity. Authorities have granted in-principle approval to pursue a government-to-government deal with China National Energy Engineering & Construction Company for a floating terminal at Kutubjom in Maheshkhali, and agreed to import LNG from an American supplier over the next 13 years.

The diplomatic effort reached regional leaders last Tuesday, when Prime Minister Tarique Rahman telephoned his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, to request assistance in easing the supply squeeze.

Existing plans to resolve the gas crisis offer promising long-term options but remain costly and three to four years away from delivering relief, according to energy experts. The government lacks immediate remedies for the current squeeze after relying almost exclusively on imported LNG for fifteen to twenty years while failing to execute a realistic domestic exploration or extraction programme.

Multiple projections and technical reports produced under the ousted Awami League government warned of the impending deficit, but those warnings were ignored.

“This situation didn’t arise overnight,” M Tamim, an energy analyst and vice-chancellor of Independent University, Bangladesh, told Bonik Barta. “At various times, there was talk of taking effective steps to resolve the gas crisis. But they were never acted upon. Now we face a financial crunch, an infrastructure shortfall and a steady decline in local gas extraction.”

Tamim noted that importing LNG from the United States could offer temporary relief, though high costs remain a constraint. “Beyond that, boosting our own gas production is the only alternative. I heard Chevron wants to provide technical support for Bangladesh’s wells. If the government accepts this, it could yield good results.”

Energy specialists say the sector is trapped in a two-pronged crisis. Domestic output is falling steadily as workovers on existing wells yield negligible volumes compared with national demand, while international LNG prices surge and state-to-state deliveries from Qatar decline amid conflicts in the Middle East.

Petrobangla data show Bangladesh suffers an uncompensated drop of 150 million cubic feet in domestic gas production each year. Chevron, which generates more than 50 percent of domestic supply, sees its fields decline by an average of 120 million cubic feet annually, according to a reliable industry source. Extraction by state-owned companies falls by an additional 30 million cubic feet a year — a deficit Petrobangla cannot bridge.

Petrobangla data show output at Chevron’s Bibiyana field fell from 815 million to 820 million cubic feet per day in early March this year to 750 million cubic feet per day by late July — a loss of roughly 70 million cubic feet in four and a half months. Output from several local state producers also dropped over the same period.

Against average national demand of 3.8 billion cubic feet a day, combined supply from domestic fields and two floating LNG terminals reaches roughly 2.6 billion cubic feet, leaving a daily deficit of 1.2 billion cubic feet. Imports cannot plug the gap because existing regasification infrastructure already operates at full capacity, while new supply contracts require facilities that do not exist yet.

Compounding the deficit, the global LNG market remains volatile as spot prices surge. Benchmark Asian spot prices reached $21.45 per million British thermal units on the Japan-Korea Marker, more than double the $10.60 recorded in late February 2026 and rendering spot purchases prohibitively expensive.

Long-term imports have also faltered. State producer QatarEnergy, which has supplied Bangladesh under a long-term contract since 2018, suffered extensive damage to its facility during the US-Iran conflict, cutting expected deliveries by half over the next three to four years. Bangladesh typically imports 40 cargoes annually from Qatar, state importer Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company data show. Under Qatar’s “force majeure” declaration, that volume will drop to 20.

Officials at Petrobangla and the Energy Division said on condition of anonymity that the government has launched a plan to drill 100 new wells to bolster domestic supply. Expected yields remain uncertain: an earlier drive to drill 50 wells launched in September 2022 failed to deliver expected volumes, while legacy onshore survey data contains errors that cloud actual reserve estimates. Authorities are now planning a new survey to map gas reserves with greater precision.

Mohammad Saiful Islam, secretary at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, told Bonik Barta that re-evaluating old wells offers the quickest path to relief. “If old wells yield gas, that will be the immediate solution to the gas crisis. We could pipe it quickly into the grid,” he said. “Beyond that, cryogenic ISO tanks arriving from Malaysia by October will transport LNG. The tanks will also carry gas from Bhola, under a plan to start supplying gas from the island to the capital and nearby industrial areas starting next February.”