Country has enough energy reserve till Dec: Minister

Blaming the Middle East war and fire incident at the country’s LNG terminal for the recent crisis in energy supply, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood has said the situation is currently normal due to energy import from alternative sources and resuming oil-based power plants.

“There are no worries about energy supply till December,” the minister said.

Iqbal made the remarks at the second session of the Fifth Bangladesh Economic Conference 2026 at a five-star hotel in the capital on Saturday.

The minister highlighted the country’s energy situation, power generation and preparations for the next summer at the session titled “Energy Security, Power Sector and Sustainable Economic Development.”

During the event, the minister said, “The Iran war began within just 10 to 15 days since I took charge. The war hampered the country’s usual energy supply system. Besides, gas supply reduced by almost half due to fire incident at a LNG terminal. Due to these incidents, many power plants shut down and industries began to suffer.”

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Highlighting that LNG had to be bought from the spot market at a high price as an alternative, the minister added, “When I took charge, per unit of LNG used to cost $12. Recently, the price has shot up to $31. As the cost of power generation using LNG equaled power generation using oil, the oil-based power plants have been brought back to production.”

The minister further said, “Gas supply is currently stable. The power situation is also satisfactory. Load shedding has happened at very few places in the last 15 to 20 days.”

“Initiatives have been taken to buy LNG according to the demand. We are hoping that we will be able to ensure energy supply till December. Plans to import LNG for January will be devised later,” the minister said.