US firm to give consultancy service

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FE Report
The government has selected US firm CH-IV International to provide consultancy service for building the country's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Maheshkhali island in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Thursday.
The firm will provide support to state-owned Petrobangla for execution of the international tender floated last week for building the country's first LNG import floating terminal, Chief of the LNG Cell Md Muqtadir Ali told the FE.
He said CH-IV will also provide support to Petrobangla for LNG transmission and marketing within the country.
The company was selected on the basis of its experience in negotiating LNG supply agreements, pricing, LNG shipping and development of LNG import terminals, said Mr Muqtadir, who previously served as the acting chiarman of Petrobangla.
"We have already issued a letter of intent to award the contract to the US firm," said the LNG Cell's top official.
Petrobangla in June this year had sought expressions of interest for the consultancy services and CH-IV International emerged as the winner out of the 28 global companies that had participated.
The CH-IV International will receive payment from a grant provided by The World Bank's International Development Agency, under Power Sector Development Technical Assistance Project in Bangladesh.
Petrobangla is now receiving bids for the contract to build the LNG import and associated facilities, which it aims to complete by 2012.
The terminal will have capacity to handle 5.0 million tonnes per year of LNG and a re-gasification capacity of at least 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas.
Officials said the LNG import terminal aims to ensure that the country does not face any sudden energy crisis due to the supply shortfall in the near future.
More than 90 per cent the country's factories and power plants are run by locally produced gas, which is projected to diminish from 2011 and the entire reserve will run out by 2014-2015 at the current consumption rate unless new gas is found.
Bangladesh's proven gas reserve now stands at around 6.0 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).
Its overall gas production is now around 1,980 mmcfd against the demand for over 2,500 mmcfd.
The gas supply shortfall has forced closure of scores of industries across the country, especially in port city Chittagong.