The government has sought extension of memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar by two more years to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) until it builds a receiving terminal, said officials.
"We have proposed to Qatar for extending the time of the MoU by two more years to import LNG from the Gulf state," a senior official of the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources told the FE.
Bangladesh on January 16, 2011 had signed a MoU to import annually 4.0 million tonnes of LNG from the Qatar Petroleum for use in the gas-guzzling industries including fertiliser factories and power plants.
But the country could not import LNG as necessary infrastructure or facility for this purpose is yet to be built.
The MoU expired in March 2015 after a two-year extension from its initial tenure, but Bangladesh expects its tenure to be extended until 2017. By that time, the country would start importing LNG for domestic purposes after building the necessary terminal.
The government is currently working to build two separate LNG terminals on Moheshkhali island in the Bay of Bengal -- of which one will be land-based and another would be offshore.
Bangladesh on January 25 inked a term sheet for the terminal-use agreement with US Excelerate Energy Ltd Partnership to build the country's first floating LNG terminal.
The US firm will now carry out a study before inking the final terminal-use deal with the Petrobangla.
Excelerate will also carry out a geotechnical study and detailed engineering design before starting construction of the LNG terminal which will be a floating storage and re-gasification unit.
The American energy firm will build the terminal within 16 months after the final deal, he added. The terminal will have a capacity of 5.0 million tonne per year and a re-gasification capacity of at least 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).
It will have berthing and mooring facilities for LNG tankers with a capacity of 138,000-260,000 cubic metres, with the construction contract to be awarded on a build-own-operate-transfer basis for 15 years.
Separately, Bangladesh's state-run Power Cell has selected three international firms for awarding contract to build an onshore LNG terminal at Matarbari on Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal.
The firms are Japan's Mitsui & Co. Ltd, India's Petronet LNG Ltd, and Royal Dutch Shell EP International Ltd.
The selected firms will be requested to submit final proposal including costs and equipment and technology to be adopted to build the terminal.
Gas from the planned terminal is expected to be supplied to gas-guzzling industries including power plants and factories.
The onshore LNG import terminal in the south -- with a handling capacity of 3.5 million tonne per year -- will be built on a build-own-and-operate 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 the design and commissioning of the terminal which will have receiving, offloading, storage and re-gasification facilities.
Other partners in the planned LNG terminal are state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board and the International Finance Corporation's IFC InfraVentures Fund.
Re-gasified LNG from the terminal will 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 LNG terminal is necessary for Bangladesh, which is reeling under an acute gas crisis due to fast depletion of current reserves and absence of new discoveries and is rationing supplies.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com
Extension of MoU for LNG import from Qatar sought
FE Report | Published: May 04, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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