My new room-mate Shuvo has a job at a CNG station (Compressed Natural Gas). Most of Bangladesh seems to run on CNG; as low as gas prices are, it ends up being much cheaper than diesel or gasoline. It also runs much cleaner, so this has been great for Bangladesh's urban air quality. But Bangladesh hasn't kept up with exploration & drilling, so the gas supplies can't keep up with demand. This summer Bangladesh's big fertilizer plants, which use gas as feedstock, are shut down, and CNG filling stations have to shut down for several hours a day of rationing.
Because of frequent power cuts, the compressor can't be run off of the electric grid. It has its own 500 kW generator -- inside this building:
Here we all are in front of the generator. Shuvo is second from left. His cousin Anwar, 3rd from left, is the station manager, and got Shuvo the job. He also often stays over in our room.
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