Govt invites bids to build LNG terminal

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M Azizur Rahman
The government has invited bids to build the country's first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at a cost of US$ 1.0 billion to ease the mounting energy shortage and feed the growing industries, officials said Saturday.
State-owned Petrobangla floated international tender last week for implementation of a floating LNG terminal and related facilities to receive LNG and deliver natural gas in the transmission grid.
The project would be implemented on build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis and the sponsor would continue to render services for 15 years.
"We have invited bids to build the floating LNG terminal as soon as possible to overcome the country's acute energy crisis," Petrobangla Chairman Dr Hussain Monsur told the FE Saturday.
He said Petrobangla wants to complete the project by 2012.
Energy ministry officials said the measure aims at meeting the country's mounting energy crunch and removing fears that industries could face an abrupt closure if local gas supply runs dry.
Building the LNG terminal to import LNG is one of the key options to make sure that the country does not face any sudden energy crisis due to supply shortfall in near future, a senior energy ministry official said.
He said the government wants to diversify the country's energy sources and cut over-reliance on natural gas produced in the local fields.
More than 90 percent of factories and power plants are now run by locally produced gas, which is projected to diminish from 2011 and the entire reserve would run out by 2014-2015 at current consumption rate unless new gas is found.
Referring to the proposed terminal, Petrobangla officials said it would be a complete floating LNG receiving terminal with berthing and mooring facility of ships having the capacity of 138,000-260,000 cubic meters, LNG storage and re-gasification unit.
The terminal will be capable to handle 5.0 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of LNG with re-gasification capacity of at least 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).
A sub-sea offshore pipeline, three kilometers in length, has to be designed and constructed from the floating terminal to the onshore custody transfer metering station at Maiskhali Island.
The bidder may apply individually or as a consortium or as a joint venture.
But the applicant must have experience in operation and management of at least one offshore LNG terminal with floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) or at least one land based LNG facilities with offshore terminal or offshore terminal with LNG shipping in the past 10 years.
The bidder should have experience as the owner or operator having an aggregate capacity of 4 Mtpa or more, including at least one LNG terminal with a capacity of 2 Mtpa or more which must have been in operation for no less than one year.
The deadline for submitting bids to Petrobangla is December 30, 2010.
Petrobangla is set to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar Petroleum within a month to import LNG.
Private sector has also been allowed to import LNG under the country's newly formulated import policy this year.
The country is now reeling under an acute gas crisis with the daily output hovering around 1,980 million cubic feet (mmcfd) against the demand for over 2,500 mmcfd.
Bangladesh's economy has been growing at an average of six per cent since 2003, outpacing energy supply and leading to widespread power outages that have forced Petrobangla to suspend gas supplies to new industries and ration consumption in fertiliser factories, power plants and industries.
Several fertiliser factories have been kept shut to conserve gas and feed power plants.
Yet power plants having the generation capacity of around 700 megawatts (mw) remained closed only due to gas crisis.