Anisul Islam Noor :
The government is planning to complete the construction work of LNG terminal at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal by 2018.
A final deal in this regard is likely to be inked within this month with the US-based company Excelerate for the construction of the terminal.
“Excelerate Energy Bangladesh Limited is now carrying out geophysical works at the project site as part of the construction of Floating, Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) terminal,” Petrobangla Chairman Istiaque Ahmad told The New Nation on Monday.
He said Excelerate has involved itself in its job under a deal initiated between the US firm and state-run Petrobangla on March 31 over the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal use and construction of the FSRU.
Istiaque Ahmad hoped that the final deal will be inked with Excelerate within this month after legal vetting and winning approval from Bangladesh’s cabinet committee on public purchase.
Excelerate will build the FSRU under build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) basis and charge US$0.49 per Mcf (1,000 cubic feet) against its service.
Petrobangla will have to count an additional $0.10 per Mcf to cover other related costs, which include the costs for fuel, tag boat operation, port facility etc.
The Petrobangla Chairman said the fixed component to be paid to Excelerate will be $159,000 per day and operating component at $46,000 per day.
Regasified LNG from the terminal would be sold on a take-or-pay basis to Petrobangla, which would have back-to-back gas sales agreements with power plant owners or operators and other consumers at the user end.
The FSRU would have berthing and mooring facilities for LNG tankers with a capacity of 138,000 cubic metres, he said.
It would have the capacity to supply around 500,000 Mcf per day of natural gas to Bangladesh’s national gas grid. The capacity could be increased to around 700,000 Mcf per day.
Petrobangla on February 25, 2015 inked a term-sheet for the terminal-use agreement with Excelerate to build the LNG import terminal.
Excelerate has already carried out a met-ocean study by Marin of the Netherlands and found building the terminal viable.
Istiaque Ahmed said Bangladesh aims at getting first re-gasified LNG from this terminal in early 2018.
State-run Gas Transmission Company Ltd (GTCL) has already completed over 50 per cent works of a 91-km pipeline aimed at carrying re-gasified imported LNG from Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal to Anowara in port city Chittagong to facilitate its transmission to user-ends.
“We want to assure industrialists of supplying required natural gas to ensure uninterrupted output,” the Petrobangla chairman said, adding the terminal is expected to be built by early 2018.
Sources said Petrobangla has been extracting additional gas from different gas fields in the country aiming to meet demand. It is not a good practice as the gas wells are in risk of shut down due to speedy extraction of gas.
They said the country has witnessed a daily shortage of gas 500mmcf despite its supply increased by 57 per cent in last seven years. Due to additional extraction some gas wells may shut. So, the policy makers are pushing to complete the first ever LNG terminal of the country to avert any crisis in the country.
In early October 2015, Petrobangla has inked a ‘confidentiality’ deal with Qatar’s Ras Gas in Doha over its planned import of LNG for regasification in the terminal.
Bangladesh is now reeling under acute natural gas crisis with the daily average output of around 2,700 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas against the demand for over 3,200 mmcfd, Petrobangla sources said.
