BPC Faces Dollar Crisis and $250 Million in Dues

Chevron Bangladesh, in collaboration with the environmental organization Green Savers, launched a tree plantation program near its Bibiyana Gas Plant in Habiganj as part of a nationwide initiative aimed at protecting biodiversity. Over five years, the program plans to plant more than 4,000 high-quality seedlings, including flowers, fruit trees, wood trees, and medicinal plants, with an emphasis on indigenous species.

Denmark has expressed a strong interest in investing in Bangladesh's port infrastructure, offshore wind energy, and the pharmaceutical sector, as revealed in a meeting between Danish Ambassador Christian Brix Moller and Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin. ]

In 2017, the government approved six diesel-based power plants with a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts, despite low demand. These plants, operational since the following year, rarely exceeded 20% capacity utilization, leading to significant financial losses for the government. Over five years, these high-cost plants resulted in expenses of several thousand crores. In the 2019-20 fiscal year, they operated at an average of just 1%, with production costs reaching 173.59 Taka per unit.

Summit Group has lost two major projects: the construction of a second floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and a 15-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contract, following interim government action. A committee formed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) recommended canceling the FSRU contract, which automatically voids the linked LNG supply deal.

Summit Power International Limited (SPIL), based in Singapore, has urgently appealed to the Bangladesh government to remove Summit Group from an NBR notice suspending share transfers. In a letter dated October 4, 2024, SPIL warned that this suspension jeopardizes lender rights under project security agreements, violating implementation terms and risking loan defaults.

IDE Bangladesh, supported by Chevron, hosted the "Sustainable Agriculture Business and Empowering Entrepreneurs" program at the Rahman Community Center in Auskandi Union, Nabiganj Upazila. The initiative aimed to equip small and medium-sized agricultural entrepreneurs and rural development associations with technical knowledge and showcase innovative, eco-friendly agricultural technologies to enhance production and sustainability.