Bangladesh has floated tenders, after a hiatus of around four months, to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a spot market after coming online of the Summit's LNG terminal, a senior Petrobangla official told the FE on Thursday.
The state-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL) would purchase two spot LNG cargoes for October 2-3 and October 4-5 delivery windows, he said.
The bid winner may deliver the LNG cargoes on Moheshkhali Island with an option to discharge the cargo at either of the country's two FSRUs, or floating storage re-gasification units located on the island, the official said.
The RPGCL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas, and Mineral Corporation, known as Petrobangla, floated the tender on September 11 and the bid closing date is September 18, said an official.
The volume of these spot LNG cargoes should be 3.36 million MMBtu.
This is the first tender of the RPGCL under the incumbent interim government that took the country's power after the fall of the previous government on August 5.
The RPGCL has been following the Public Procurement Rules 2008, allowing competition among selective bidders, instead of the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provision) Act 2010 (Amended 2021) to select the bidders, the official said.
The tender formal, however, remains same as earlier, with the tenders being done on a fixed-price basis, said the official of the RPGCL that looks after LNG trading in Bangladesh.
But, the bid submission time has been extended to seven days from the previous three days under the new tendering method.
Currently, 23 global LNG suppliers are shortlisted by the RPGCL and the later sends invitation to all the short-listed firms under the tendering method.
Bangladesh previously awarded its latest spot LNG tender to Total Energies Gas and Power Ltd for July 24-25 delivery cargo at $12.58 per million British thermal unit (MMBtu).
This is was the last spot LNG cargo delivered to Bangladesh after ceasing of LNG re-gasification by Summit LNG Terminal in late May.
Bangladesh had stopped issuing LNG tenders for spot purchases after the first week of July as the Summit Group's FSRU was taken offline at the end of May.
The demand for LNG cargoes had almost muted from mid-July to first week of August because of student-led public movement in Bangladesh.
The demand, however, recovered afterwards and power load-shedding is still frequent as inventory was not sufficient to meet requirements.
The Summit's FSRU has been re-gasifying around 50 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of LNG due to current limited inventory, Petrobangla chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker said.
It will continue re-gasifying around 50 mmcfd of LNG over the next one week and will go into full operation by re-gasifying around 500 mmcfd once the spot LNG cargoes start delivering, he said.
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