State-run Power Cell has short-listed five international firms for awarding contract to build the country's first onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Matarbari in Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal, a senior official told the FE Saturday.
The firms are Japan's Mitsui & Co. Ltd, China's consortium of China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation & Yifeng Industrial Gas Co Ltd, Belgium's Tractebel Engineering & TSK consortium, India's H Energy Pvt Ltd, and Royal Dutch's Shell EP International Ltd.
The evaluation committee of the Power Cell, a state-owned entity under the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources (MPEMR), having representative from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), short-listed these firms for the project work recently and sent the evaluation report to the MPEMR and the IFC, said the official of the MPEMR.
The short-listed firms will be requested to submit final proposal including cost and equipment and technology to be adopted to build the terminal, he added.
Gas from the planned terminal is expected to be supplied to gas-using industries including power plants and factories, he said.
The planned onshore terminal would be the country's second LNG terminal.
The Power Cell had issued a tender seeking expression of interests (EoIs) from international companies in mid-April to build the onshore LNG import terminal in the south -- with a handling capacity of 3.5 million tonne per year -- on a build-own-and-operate (BOO) basis.
The bid-winning company will take a majority stake in the planned terminal, acting as an engineering, procurement and construction contractor. It will be responsible for design and commissioning of the terminal which will have receiving, offloading, storage and re-gasification facilities.
Other partners in the planned LNG terminal are the Bangladesh Power Development Board and the International Finance Corporation's IFC InfraVentures Fund.
Re-gasified LNG from the terminal would be sold on a long-term, take-or-pay basis to a state-owned entity, which will have back-to-back gas sales agreements with power plant owners or operators and other customers.
The Power Cell had extended the bid submission deadline thrice from the initial deadline of May 18, 2014, to facilitate submissions by potential investors.
Separately, state-owned Petrobangla signed a preliminary agreement on June 26 with the US Astra Oil and Excelerate Energy of the US to build the country's first LNG terminal.
The US consortium will pay for the construction of a floating storage and re-gasification unit at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal.
The offshore terminal will have a capacity of 5.0 million tonne per year.
A final deal is to be inked on completion of legal vetting and approval by the Bangladesh cabinet committee.
Bangladesh inked a memorandum of understanding with Qatar in January 2011 to import 4 million tonne per year of LNG from the Qatar Petroleum.
Bangladesh extended the MOU with Qatar until June 2015. They have not yet signed a final import deal.
LNG terminals are crucial for Bangladesh, which is reeling under an acute gas crisis due to fast depletion of current reserves and dearth of new discoveries.
Bangladesh's gas output hovers at around 2,320 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd)against demand of 3,000 mmcfd.
azizjst@yahoo.com
Five firms short-listed for awarding contract
FE Report | Published: October 19, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Share if you like