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United News of Bangladesh

United News of Bangladesh (UNB) is recognised as the nation's most dependable and credible source of news and information, serving some 50 million readers, listeners and viewers every day.

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Latest Press Release
Import potentials of liquefied natural gas (LNG)

Import potentials of liquefied natural gas (LNG)

 Dhaka, May 27 (UNB) - A 7-member delegation of the Energy Ministry is leaving Dhaka for Doha, the capital of Qatar, this week to gather information about import potentials of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the gulf country.

Leader of the delegation Energy Secretary Mesbauddin Ahmed will leave the capital for Doha on May 29 while other members of his team will leave on June 1 to start a 4-day visit to the petroleum enriched country.

This will be the first tour by a Bangladeshi delegation to explore the potential source of LNG that the government is planning to import to meet the country’s deficit and overcome the nagging energy crisis.

Against the backdrop of the countrywide gas and electricity crisis, the government recently announced plans for LNG import. Presently, different countries in the world like Qatar, Algeria and Angola export the bulk LNG.

“Qatar is one of the largest LNG exporting country and we’ll try to gather information as to how much gas they could export to Bangladesh and at what price. This is our main target,” said Muktadir Ali, a member of the delegation and also the former chairman of the state-owned Petrobangla.

Ali was recently appointed as the head of the newly formed LNG Cell under the Energy Ministry. As per the government plan, about 182.500 billion cubic feet (BCF) of LNG will be required to import annually to meet the daily deficit of 500 million cubic feet (MMCF) of against the present production of 1900 MMCFD.

To facilitate the import of bulk gas, Bangladesh also needs to build up huge infrastructure including an LNG terminal in at Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh territory that will accommodate a floating storage and re-gasification unit as well.

The government wants the infrastructure either to be developed in private sector or under the public private partnership (PPP). It was estimated that an investment of US $600 million-$1 billion will be required to build a floating LNG terminal where a CNG-carrying vessel, having capacity of 3 billion cubic feet of gas, can unload the fuel. This vessel will meet 6 days’ demand, with 500 million cubic feet of gas (MMCFD) supplied from the terminal per day. To transport the gas from the terminal to the onshore areas, the project will require setting up a 100 km 30-inch gas pipeline at a cost of US$ 100 million. The state-owned Gas Transmission Company of
Bangladesh (GTCL) has already initiated move to build the gas pipeline.

Under the plan, a private firm could set up the terminal on build-own-operate basis and the government would be charged a fee against the use of the terminal. After meeting all expenses, per unit (1000 cubic feet) gas will cost between US$ 8- 12 while the country present gas production cost is below US$ 3.After the government move, a UK-based company Golar LNG Energy has placed a proposal to set up floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) in Bangladesh.