SINGAPORE, Sept 09(Reuters): Bangladesh's state oil and gas company Petrobangla plans to buy more than 1.0 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the spot market next year, seeking to capitalise on lower prices for the super-chilled fuel, a senior official said.
Asian spot LNG prices are currently seasonally at their lowest in years due to new supply entering the market from the United States, and as demand growth slows in major economies.
Petrobangla, in charge of LNG imports into the South Asian country, plans to issue a spot tender some time over January or February next year, said Mohammed Riyadh Ali, director of the Federation of Bangladesh chambers of commerce and industry.
The official was speaking to Reuters at the sidelines of an industry conference.
Petrobangla will buy eight cargoes of 140,000 tonnes each, or a total of about 1.1 million tonnes, in 2020, he said.
According to Riyadh Ali, the purchase will mark Bangladesh's first spot tender for LNG.
"As demand grows, in 2021, we will buy 2 million tonnes of LNG from spot markets," he said.
The nation of 160 million people is expected to become a major LNG importer in Asia, alongside Pakistan and India, as domestic gas supplies fall.
Bangladesh currently has two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) with a total regasification capacity of 1 billion cubic feet per day - equal to about 7.5 million tonnes a year.
Petrobangla already imports about 300-400 million cubic feet per day of LNG - equivalent to 3.5 million tonnes per year in total - through two long-term contracts with Oman and Qatar.
"The terminals have space but we don't want to buy long-term (cargoes) as there are too many cargoes available at cheaper rates," said Riyadh Ali. "We have already shortlisted 17 parties to participate in tenders," he said, without identifying potential suppliers.
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