Bangladesh has signed a long-term LNG sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with QatarEnergy for up to 1.5 million tonnes per year for a 15-year period starting from January 2026.
"The SPA has two components - for 2026, which is the first year of the deal, QatarEnergy will supply 12 LNG cargoes to Bangladesh with the option of adding another 12 cargoes under specific conditions," Mir Mohammad Aslam Uddin, the deputy chief information officer of Bangladesh's Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources), told the FE on Thursday.
"From 2027 until 2040, QatarEnergy will supply a confirmed 24 LNG cargoes that are equivalent to around 1.50 million tonnes per year of LNG," added Aslam Uddin, who is also the spokesperson for the ministry.
The SPA was inked in Doha, where Bangladesh's Minister of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, Energy Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Majumder and Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker were present. The delegation from Dhaka flew to Doha Wednesday night.
The spokesperson did not provide additional details on the pricing of the SPA.
The SPA with QatarEnergy is Bangladesh's second long-term deal with a Qatari LNG supplier and the third long-term LNG import deal in total. Currently, the national oil company Petrobangla has two SPAs - one with Qatargas and another with Oman's OQ Trading.
With the third long-term contract, Bangladesh now has long-term contract volumes of around 5.0 million tonnes per year, an increase from the previous capacity of up to 3.50 million tonnes per year, according to a Petrobangla official.
Bangladesh's two operational floating storage and re-gasification units (FSRUs), namely the 77,263 dwt Summit LNG and the 77,348 dwt FSRU Excellence, have a combined capacity to re-gasify around 7.50 million tonnes per year of LNG, said the official.
If the two FSRUs operate at full capacity, they will be able to handle the entire contracted LNG volume. However, the country may need to restrict the import of LNG from the spot market if it fails to increase its LNG re-gasification capacity.
To meet the growing demand, Bangladesh has announced plans to install two additional FSRUs and construct an onshore LNG import terminal.
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