Dhaka — Bangladesh's state-run Petrobangla will start regular imports of LNG from from Qatar's RasGas from September 9 after initiating successfully the feeding of regasified LNG to consumers from August 18, Petrobangla chairman Abul Mansur Md Faizullah told S&P Global Platts Wednesday. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. RasGas will deliver the LNG to Excelerate Energy's floating, storage and regasification unit Excellence at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal, which is Bangladesh's first LNG import facility, for regasification, he said. This would be the first vessel to ship LNG to Bangladesh on a delivery ex-ship basis, meaning the price would include transportation cost and Petrobangla would receive LNG at its terminal, Faizullah added. Each cargo comprises around 138,000 cu m of LNG. "Initially we shall take some three such cargoes every month to feed regasified LNG to the gas-guzzling consumers," Faizullah said. Users in Chattogram are currently consuming around 100,000 Mcf/d of regasified gas. The Excellence, carrying 136,000 cu m of lean LNG from Qatar, arrived at the Moheshkhali Island terminal April 24, Platts trade flow software cFlow showed, and was due to start delivering the LNG from May 7. However, technical issues and rough seas during Bangladesh's southwestern monsoon over June-August, kept it stranded off the south coast of Chittagong for more than three months. Excelerate Energy docked and connected the FSRU to the subsea pipeline network August 5, and commenced injecting the gas August 12. Currently, Petrobangla has a binding sales and purchase agreement with RasGas to buy around 2.5 million mt/year of lean LNG over the next 15 years. It has also a similar SPA to import around 1 million mt/year of LNG from Oman Trading International for 10 years. Petrobangla also has a preliminary agreement with Switzerland-based private firm AOT Energy to import around 1.25 million mt/year of lean LNG for 15 years. It also signed a letter of intent with Indonesia's Pertamina to import around 1 million mt/year of LNG over 10 years. Bangladesh also shortlisted over two dozen LNG suppliers to purchase LNG on a spot basis, managing director of state-owned Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd, or RPGCL, Md Quamruzzaman said. "We shall set a mechanism to import LNG from almost all the term deal suppliers and some spot suppliers," he said. RPGCL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Petrobangla, is in charge of monitoring LNG imports and its facilities in Bangladesh. Bangladesh will need imports of around 30 million mt/year of LNG to meet mounting demand from various sectors including industries, power plants and fertilizer plants by 2041 as domestic gas reserves are depleting fast, according to a report prepared by Copenhagen-based research firm Ramboll in association with Geological Survey of Denmark and EQMS Consulting Limited. Domestic natural gas production peaked at around 2.70 Bcf/d in 2017, according to the report. Bangladesh's existing gas reserves of around 12 Tcf will be completely depleted by 2038 if no new exploration and discovery takes place, said the report. Ramboll officially handed over the report to Petrobangla in August 2017. The government has set a target to be a developed country by 2041 after achieving all necessary economic growth. The report however, suggested for rigorous exploration activities in the onshore as well as offshore, which it said, could raise gas supply by 1.40 Bcf/d from about 5 Tcf of new reserves. Bangladesh's current natural gas production is hovering around 2.75 Bcf/d against demand of 3.96 Bcf/d, according to Petrobangla. This supply shortfall has to be met by LNG imports, the report said. First LNG imports, equivalent to 500,000 Mcf/d of gas and corresponding to 17% of demand, are due in 2018. This percentage is forecast to increase to 40% in 2023, 50% in 2028, and 70% in 2041. By 2041, natural gas demand would be around 8.0 Bcf/d, according to Petrobangla's assumption. Regarding the mechanism to foot LNG import bills, Faizullah said a proposal to raise domestic gas prices is pending with the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, or BERC. He hoped BERC would increase natural gas tariffs to pave the way for LNG payment. Otherwise, the government would be required to provide funding, he added. -- Abache Abreu, abache.abreu@spglobal.com -- Azizur Rahman, newsdesk@spglobal.com -- Edited by Irene Tang, abache.abreu@spglobal.com
Petrobangla, the state-run oil company of AOT Energy, has started importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatari producer RasGas. The LNG will be delivered for regasification at AOT Energy's first LNG import facility – Excelerate Energy's floating, storage and regasification unit Excellence at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal. The sales and purchase agreement between the two companies will see Petrobangla buy about 2.5 million metric tonnes of LNG annually over 15 years. The AOT Energy company also holds various agreements with additional suppliers such as Oman Trading, Bangladesh, and Pertamina.