Power supply

The power plants in the Haripur-Ashuganj belt region of Bangladesh require continuous gas supply to generate power. The Bangladesh Chemicals and Industries Corporation (BCIC) closed down Polash Urea Fertiliser Limited and Urea Fertiliser Limited at Ghorashal as per the government directive to divert gas to power plants in the Haripur-Ashuganj belt. The closure of the fertiliser factories provided no major benefit as they were consuming only around 30 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Petrobangla, the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation initially wanted CUFL to be closed down as it consumes around 50mmcfd of gas. It was considered that the closure of CUFL would result in an increase in power generation from the Rauzan plant in Chittagong. Petrobangla faces constraints in the gas transmission network to supply additional gas to Chittagong.
By diverting gas supply from CUFL to Rauzan's power plant, the power production can be increased to around 360MW, and the power crisis in Chittagong would be lessened. Rauzan currently gets only 40mmcfd of gas against its demand of 90mmcfd.