Gas supply across Bangladesh is set to rise this week as US-based Excelerate Energy will resume LNG re-gasification at its expanded capacity floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) after a two-month overhaul, sources said.
Excellence, Bangladesh's first FSRU owned by Excelerate Energy, ceased operations on November 1, 2023 for the long-overdue overhaul.
The FSRU has already left Singapore's dry dock for its mooring in the Bay of Bengal at Moheshkhali after repairs, a senior official of state-run Petrobangla told the Financial Express Sunday.
"It is the FSRU's first overhaul since beginning commercial operations on 19 August 2018," he said.
Excellence had continuously re-gasified imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Bangladesh except for a brief period.
It was intentionally taken offline, along with the country's other operational FSRU owned by the Summit Group, on 12 May 2023 as a precaution centring Cyclone Mocha. It came back online on 20 May after an eight-day break.
Both FSRUs are located on Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal.
Excelerate Energy took a couple of months to complete the overhaul of its 3.75 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity FSRU and increase its re-gasification capacity by 20 per cent to 4.5 MTPA or 600 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).
With the renovation and capacity expansion, Bangladesh's total LNG re-gasification capacity will rise from 1,000mmcfd to 1,100mmcfd.
The government reduced LNG imports from the spot market during the FSRU's overhaul period in line with the reduced re-gasification capacity, although Petrobangla continued importing LNG from its long-term suppliers, the official said.
The country imported a total of eight LNG cargoes from its two existing suppliers in the Gulf region -- Qatargas and OQ Trading -- four each in November and December.
In November, Qatargas delivered three cargoes while OQ Trading supplied one, as per the 2023 annual delivery programme.
Qatargas supplied all four LNG cargoes in December, while OQ Trading delivered none, a Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) official said.
"Petrobangla relied solely on Summit's FSRU in Excellence's absence, dropping the country's overall LNG re-gasification capacity to around 500mmcfd," he said.
Before halting LNG re-gasification from Excellence, Bangladesh gradually squeezed overall re-gasification from its two operational FSRUs to around 601mmcfd from a peak of around 950mmcfd in September, when total natural gas output was around 2,950mmcfd, according to official data.
After Excellence's operation was put on hold, Bangladesh's LNG re-gasification dropped to around 492mmcfd and overall natural gas output to 2,590mmcfd, according to official data as of 1 November 2023.
azizjst@yahoo.com