BRAHMANBARIA: The giant structures of Bangladesh's Ashuganj fertiliser factory have stood silent for more than a year, as a natural gas crisis shuts industries, triggers power cuts and sparks protests over fuel shortages.
Machinery once ran round the clock, using natural gas to produce urea that farmers depended on to grow crops for the country's 170 million people.
Now the state-owned factory, which once employed more than 1,200 people and produced more than 1,000 tonnes of fertiliser a day, is a rusting shell.
Ashuganj closed in March 2025, with the country battered by a gas shortage sparked by a plunge in production owing to underinvestment in ageing fields and exploration, while the US-Iran war has choked imports from the Middle East.
"Only the skeleton of the factory remains," said Md Bazlur Rashid, 59, who spent his entire working life at Ashuganj, built near the eastern Titas gas field. "It has lost its life".
The factory is one of six major urea fertiliser plants that have been forced to close down or restrict operations because of gas shortages.
Trade union leader Md Abu Kawsar said the shutdowns had cost workers their jobs while threatening an industry linked to food security.
"You cannot simply let these factories sit idle and allow them to deteriorate," he told AFP. "Reviving them could also help save foreign currency."
But the consequences of the gas shortage extend far beyond fertiliser production. Hundreds of factories, including textile plants, are cutting production or shutting.
Bangladesh is the world's second-largest garment exporter, which accounts for about 80 percent of the country's export earnings.
At home, domestic piped gas is often cut. Power plants turning gas into electricity are struggling to meet demand, creating regular blackouts.
The government issued electricity-saving measures in August, including ordering shopping malls to close an hour earlier.
Electricity generation, industry and captive power plants account for more than three-quarters of Bangladesh's gas consumption.
Households, which account for just over a tenth of the country's gas consumption, have also been hit.
"We don't get a drop of gas overnight," said housewife Nargis Begum, 50, who lives close to the Ashuganj factory.
"Then sometimes the pressure is too low. We can't turn on two burners at the same time."
Many households, particularly in rural areas, have switched to wood-burning stoves, while electricity cuts leave residents without fans in the sweltering humidity.
"There is no let-up in our suffering," said Begum. "There is no guarantee of electricity. It's so hot now. Last night, there were three or four outages."
Gas-powered rickshaw drivers have also blocked roads in protest after hours waiting for fuel.
The shortages are the result of a crisis that has been building for years.
Bangladesh was largely self-sufficient in natural gas in 2018, but production declined as older fields depleted, while demand has risen, with Qatar providing key imports.
Experts say successive governments have failed to invest sufficiently in exploration.
Energy Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku blamed the previous government of Sheikh Hasina, ousted in a 2024 revolution, for failing to drill new wells.
"The previous government stayed away from gas exploration," he told an energy security conference in Dhaka in July. "Our dependence on imports has brought us to this point."
Imports have also proved vulnerable.
The crisis worsened after the war in the Middle East disrupted liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments, with traffic through the Strait of Hormuz severely curtailed.
Supplies were further hit when a floating storage and regasification unit, which processes imported LNG into gas, halted operations because of a technical problem.
With no quick fix, the government is continuing LNG orders and investing in terminals to expand imports, even as experts call for more domestic exploration.
Bangladesh has offshore gas fields -- but drilling new wells takes time.
Md Anwar Hossain Bhuiyan, a geology professor at Dhaka University, said gas production could be increased in existing fields, but a long-term solution requires new wells.
"A single well can cost $12-$16 million to drill, but the value of the gas that can be recovered is much higher -- around $4.5-$4.9 billion," he said.
The government plans to buy two drilling rigs and has launched an offshore bidding round.
But Petrobangla chairman Md Abdul Mannan, whose state-owned corporation oversees Bangladesh's oil and gas sector, said the ultimate answer lies beyond gas.
"The gas crisis will be resolved once we turn to renewable energy," Mannan told AFP. "I can't give you a timeframe for that, perhaps two years."