LPG sector needs  more investment

Mohammed Nurul Alam

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a rapidly growing industry in Bangladesh. As a potential sector, we have seven major companies including BM Energy (BD) Ltd. The gap between demand and supply of natural gas is widening day by day, because of the massive conversion of fuel-run automobile engines to CNG and increased pressure of growing industries and households on energy supply.
The Bangladesh government has realised this and has been taking measures to conserve gas. One of the initiatives is to encourage the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as an alternative to natural gas for household, commercial and industrial use.
Therefore, we need more investments in the sector to serve more households and industries as the demand is rising day by day. We are using foreign LPG technologies from different sources and will be exploring newer technologies in future.
In 2016, the LPG market in Bangladesh was of around 350,000 tonnes as against the demand for this particular fuel estimated at around 500,000 tonnes in 2017. We also predict that the size of LPG market in Bangladesh will reach 1.0 million tonnes by 2020. Currently, the global LPG market is around 300 million tonnes, which is around 110 million tonnes in Asia Pacific region.
After launching in 2015, BM Energy (BD) Limited is trying to capture market share with its eco-friendly and safest LPG fuel solution. We have already gained 18% market share within 2 years of the launch and we are aspiring for more in future.
BM Energy (BD) Ltd. is one of the companies that got LPG operator license and is now making its journey towards leading the industry. Along with our mother plant in Chittagong, we have also established a satellite bottling plant in Gazipur, Dhaka and a cylinder manufacturing plant in Chittagong.
Second LPG Import Terminal in Khulna is under construction and will be serving the customers by February 2018. As an LPG operator, we have the opportunity to setup 400 autogas filling stations across the country, of which 100 autogas filling stations will be setup by 2017.
Our own autogas filling stations in various places across Bangladesh are under construction and we are also encouraging existing filling station owners for partnership. We are also focusing on industrial sector as the bulk demand is rising. At present we are serving the bulk LPG in industries such as - steel, textiles, food processing, aerosol and foam industry. BM Energy (BD) Ltd. is committed to serve its household, commercial and industrial customers with its wide range of services in extent to technical know-how and sublime customer experience.
[The writer is the chief executive officer (CEO) of BM Energy (BD) Ltd. Email: [email protected]]