Govt moves to build 91km pipeline

The government has now made a concrete move to install a 91-kilometre pipeline to carry re-gasified imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal to Anowara in Chittagong to facilitate its transmission to the users' end, said officials.
Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) has floated two separate tenders to install the gas pipeline, a senior EMRD official told the FE Sunday.
He said an international tender has been floated to build around a 3-km section of the pipeline, which will cross four rivers -- Koheli, Uzantia, Matamuhuri and Sangu.
The bid winner will be responsible to design, procure, supply, install, test and commission the pipeline through four rivers on turnkey basis.
The bidders must have experience of installing minimum one 500-metre-and 20-inch-diameter transmission pipeline in a single contract in horizontal directional drilling (HDD) method.
The EMRD has sought bids separately from locals to install around 88-km gas-transmission pipeline on mainland for separate segments.
The interested parties must have experience in the construction of gas pipeline for 10 years.
They can participate in bidding either individually or in joint venture, or consortium, or association.
"The bidder would be responsible for preparing, clearing and grading of right-of-way (RoW), hauling and stringing of pipes, bending and welding of pipes, installation of anchor block, digging the trench, lowering the pipes, crossing of canal, crossing of mangrove forest in tidal area by making channel, steel-sheet pilling etc," said one official.
The international bidder must complete project works in 240 days and the locals in 210 days.
"Different state-owned gas entities along with the government would fund the project costs," said the official.
The government earlier on January 25 inked a term sheet for the terminal-use agreement with US Excelerate Energy Ltd Partnership to build the country's first floating LNG terminal.
The US firm will now carry out a metocean study before inking the final terminal-use deal with Petrobangla.
Excelerate will also carry out a geotechnical study, detailed engineering design before starting construction of the LNG terminal which will be a floating storage and re-gasification unit.
The American energy firm will build the terminal within 16 months after the final deal, he added.
LNG import might start in early 2017.
The terminal would have a capacity of 5 million tonnes per year and a re-gasification capacity of at least 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).
It will have berthing and mooring facilities for LNG tankers with a capacity of 138,000-260,000 cu m, with the construction contract to be awarded on a build-own-operate-transfer basis for 15 years.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com