Gas crisis to ease in mid-March

Summit's FSRU is expected to return to the Moheshkhali mooring by mid-March to contribute to mitigating the present countrywide gas crisis, said sources.
The country's second floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) ceased re-gasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in early January 2024 for its first overhauling since starting the operation, reducing the re-gasification capacity to only around 600 mmcfd.
Upon resumption of its operation, the country's LNG re-gasification is expected to reach around 1,100 mmcfd, easing the ongoing energy crisis.
The FSRU of Summit LNG Terminal Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Summit Group, would resume operations shortly after tying up with the Moheshkhali mooring facility, a senior official at state-run Petrobangla told the FE Wednesday.
Previously, the FSRU's operation was suspended for around three months from November 2021 due to the rupture of its mooring line from the mooring system at Moheshkhali island in the Bay of Bengal, said a senior official at state-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd. (RPGCL).
The US's Excelerate Energy-owned FSRU - Excellence - had to re-gasify 10 per cent more than its official capacity to 550 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) during that period to cope with the short supply of natural gas, according to official data of Petrobangla.
Summit's FSRU re-initiated LNG re-gasification from February 28, 2022 after recovering the technical glitch.
Excellence is also re-gasifying LNG above its official capacity to ensure better gas supply, he added.
Excellence is now re-gasifying around 607 mmcfd of LNG as on January 30, according to official data of Petrobangla.
With the capacity expansion work, Excellence's LNG re-gasification capacity has increased to around 170,000 cubic metre with send out capacity of 600 mmcfd from its previous capacity of 138,000 cubic metre and send out capacity of 500 mmcfd.
Petrobangla intends to re-gasify up to 8.33 per cent more LNG or up to 650 mmcfd of LNG until resumption of Summit's FSRU after carrying out overhauling to resolve the ongoing natural gas crisis in Bangladesh, said the Petrobangla official.
Natural gas crisis is now affecting all sorts of consumers, including industries, power plants, and commercial and household users, resulting in a cut in industrial output and untold sufferings of the commoners, industry insiders said.
Gas crisis has now become so acute that the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), which once advocated for hiking the natural gas tariff to get an adequate supply of gas, is now seeking to revert the gas tariff to its pre-hike level.
The government had increased gas tariff by up to 179 per cent last year with the assurance of an uninterrupted gas supply, the BTMA leaders said in a press conference a couple of days back.
But the gas supply situation did not improve, rather deteriorated further this year, since the increase in the gas prices, BTMA President Mohammad Ali Khokon alleged.
The country's natural gas output is currently hovering around 2,662 mmcfd, of which 607mmcfd is re-gasified imported LNG, according to Petrobangla statistics as on January 30.

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