A US energy team, now in the capital, held Monday the first round of discussion with the Petrobangla on the signing of a framework agreement for construction of the proposed LNG terminal at Moheshkhali Island in the Cox's Bazar district.
Petrobangla chairman Dr Hussain Mansur confirmed the development and told The FE that discussions on various technical aspects and physical layout of the terminal would continue over the next few days.
He said discussions with the US private sector team have been taking place for some time.
He expected this round of talks to continue over the next two to three days before initialling a draft agreement.
Technical experts will then further examine the draft, he said adding it will be later sent to the Ministry of Law for vetting.
"We are working on the signing of the final agreement very soon to set up a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) in the off-shore waters," he said.
It will be located about 6 km from Moheshkhali Island where the imported LNG (liquefied natural gas) will be unloaded from specialised ships and regassified in the terminal for distribution to clients through commercial supply network in the mainland.
The government plans to put the terminal to use by June 2016.
It will have an inbuilt pipeline system to bring the regassified LNG on the shore.
The initial handling capacity of the terminal will be 500mmcf daily and it may later expand in phases with the rise in local demand and imports.
It may be a big investment project, Dr Hussain Mansur said suggesting that the final cost configuration may be ascertained after finalising the project layout.
He said the government is planning to import LNG from Qatar with which it has already a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) four years ago. The problem now is with a terminal to unload the imported liquefied gas which is delaying efforts to overcome domestic gas shortfall.
He said the LNG terminal at Moheshkhali would usher in a new era of energy security for the country. This will help set up new businesses and industries to go for more expansion of economic activities by removing pressure on domestic gas supply.
He said at present gas supply from domestic network stands at 2350 mmcf daily against a minimum demand for over 2700 mmcf per day.
The country is losing much of the growth potentials in the absence of adequate energy supply to power plants and industries. The service sector similarly has remained under-utilised with huge unexploited potentials, experts said.
Sources at the Petrobangla said the government plans to supply gas to businesses and industries in the Chittagong region from imported LNG in future while diverting domestic gas to users in other industrial zones in and around Dhaka and further to north-west.
The Petrobangla chairman said the entire domestic energy supply will go for a major readjustment once the imported LNG starts arriving on the shore.
US team starts discussion with Petrobangla on LNG terminal
Faruque Ahmed | Published: June 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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