Gas supply reaches record 3,205 mmcfd

The country's overall natural gas supply has reached around 3,205 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) riding on the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
This is the highest-ever gas supply in the history of Bangladesh.
Local gas companies are producing around 1,072 mmcfd or 33 per cent and international oil companies around 1,657 or 51 per cent of the total output.
The remaining 296 mmcfd are re-gasified LNG, according to the state-run Petrobangla.
The gas-guzzling clients in Chattogram are currently consuming the entire quantity of the re-gasified LNG.
Clients like power plants and gas-starved fertiliser factories have resumed operations, said Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd (KGDCL) managing director Khaiz Ahmed Mozumder.
The KGDCL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petrobangla, is responsible for supplying natural gas to the port city.
It currently takes around 40 mmcfd of gas from the main pipeline and 296 mmcfd of re-gasified LNG to meet the local demand, Mr Mozumder said.
Earlier, the KGDCL got only around 230-250 mmcfd of gas from the Bakhrabad-Fouzdarhat pipeline for Chattogram consumers, he told the FE.
"Chattogram faces no gas crisis now," Mr Mozumder mentioned.
He said, "The country's upstream areas like the capital, Dhaka, and its adjoining areas are also getting benefit of LNG imports."
Bangladesh started commercial LNG supply from Exceleretae's FSRU (floating, storage, re-gasification unit) on August 18, around four months after the entry of the country's first FSRU loaded with LNG.
The Excellence, carrying 136,000 cubic metres of lean LNG from Qatar, reached Moheshkhali terminal on April 24.
It was due to start delivering LNG from May 07.
But technical issues and rough seas during the June-August south-western monsoon kept it stranded off the south coast of Chittagong for more than three months.
Excelerate Energy docked and connected the FSRU to the subsea pipeline network on August 05 and commenced injecting the gas on August 12.
Petrobangla has a binding sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Qatar's RasGas to buy 2.5 million tonne per year (Mtpa) of lean LNG for the next 15 years.
It has a similar SPA to import around 1.0 Mtpa of LNG from Oman Trading International for 10 years.
Petrobangla also has a preliminary agreement with Switzerland-based private firm AOT Energy to import around 1.25 Mtpa of lean LNG for 15 years.
It has signed a letter of intent with Indonesia's Pertamina to import around 1 Mtpa of LNG over 10 years.
Bangladesh also shortlisted more than two dozen LNG suppliers to purchase lean LNG from spot market.

[email protected]