The quantity of LNG (liquefied natural gas) imported by state-owned Petrobangla is diminishing everyday due to 'boil-off' and 'evaporation' as the expensive fuel has been stranded in the Bay for around three months, said officials.
Petrobangla's loses at least around 100-125 cubic metre of LNG a day.
The delays in tying up the FSRU with subsea pipeline and its 'synchronisation' coupled with the construction of necessary gas transmission pipeline have held up the supply of re-gasified LNG (liquefied natural gas) to consumers since then.
Top officials of the energy ministry announced at least four separate dates for initiating the supply of re-gasified LNG.
He said the floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) owned by the US-based Excelerate Energy Bangladesh Ltd (EEBL) is boiling off LNG for the FSRU's movement apart from natural evaporation of the fuel.
Excelerate brought in its FSRU, known as Excellence, in the Bangladesh territory on April 25, 2018 after loading 136,009 cubic metres of lean LNG from Qatar's RasGas.
The supply of re-gasified LNG to consumers was to be initiated from early May.
The FSRU could not to be tied up with the sub-sea pipeline yet due to rough weather in the sea, insiders said.
If the wave-height in the Bay of Bengal could be within 1.0 metre, the FSRU could easily be tied up and synchronised with the sub-sea pipeline, an engineer involved with the job told this correspondent requesting anonymity.
But currently, the sea wave-height is at least 2.0 metres and above, he added.
But industry insiders said even if the tying up and synchronisation is completed, the FSRU's full capacity re-gasified LNG could not be supplied as the construction of pipeline crossing the Karnaphuli River is facing a major hurdle.
The FSRU might be able to evacuate only around 250 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) or half the re-gasified LNG from the day one, they said.
This will put the government at the 'capacity payment' risk from the day one of the commercial operations of the country's first LNG import terminal.
Petrobangla must pay around US$ 245,000 per day to the contractor, no matter what it takes -- less re-gasified LNG or full capacity under the sales and purchase agreement (SPA), a senior Petrobangla official said.
The construction of a 30-kilometre and 42-inch diameter Anwara-Fouzdarhat gas transmission pipeline seems to be the major hurdle in transmitting the re-gasified LNG.
A senior official of the state-run Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd (KGDCL), the distributor for the Chattogram region, said it could consume only around 250 mmcfd of re-gasified LNG due to the pipeline constraints.
Petrobangla signed 'terminal use agreement' and 'implementation agreement' with the US firm on the LNG terminal project, 'Moheshkhali Floating LNG Terminal,' in July 2016.
Excelerate built the re-gasification unit on the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis, he said.
It would charge US$ 0.49 per Mcf (1,000 cubic feet) against its service from the day one.
Petrobangla will buy re-gasified LNG from the terminal on the take-or-pay basis, said the official.
When contacted, energy adviser of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh Dr M Shamsul Alam termed the matter "total failure" of the energy division.
Mr Alam also demanded the punishment of all for what he said "puzzling the people and embarrassing the government".
[email protected]
