Bangladesh has sought detailed proposals from two aspirant Indian suppliers to initiate importing re-gasified LNG (liquefied natural gas) from the neighbouring country.
"We have sought detailed offers from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and H-Energy to select the RLNG (re-gasified LNG) supplier finally," Energy and Mineral Resources Division Secretary Md Anisur Rahman told the FE.
The Indian firms have been asked to provide pricing, pipeline route, and technical issues over their LNG, he added.
Both IOCL and H-Energy are keen to supply RLNG to south-western Khulna region to run gas-guzzling industries there.
Bangladesh has never imported RLNG before. The selected Indian firm will be the first company to supply the fuel to the country.
The state-owned North-West Power Generation Company Ltd's (NWPGCL) proposed 800-megawatt (MW) gas-fired combined cycle power plant in Rupsha will be the major consumer of the imported RLNG.
Importing the fuel from India will help diversify the country's energy sources, which are crucial to ensuring the country's future energy security.
The state-run Petrobangla has been importing lean LNG from Qatar's QatarGas and Oman's Oman Trading International, and re-gasifying LNG in two privately-owned floating LNG terminals at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal since August 2018.
Petrobangla has also initiated importing LNG from spot market in this September.
IOCL and H-Energy held several rounds of discussion over the past several years with NWPGCL to supply RLNG for the Rupsha power plant.
As per the initial discussions, the Indian state-run IOCL, also known as IndianOil, showed interest to supply around 200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) equivalent of RLNG.
H-Energy was keen to supply around 125 mmcfd of RLNG, which it said could be increased to 500 mmcfd and 1.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) in future.
H-Energy is working to build a LNG terminal with 8.0 million tonnes per year capacity in West Bengal's Digha area.
The 800-MW power plant of NWPGCL will require around 130 mmcfd of RLNG to generate electricity.
The remaining gas can be supplied to natural grid for consumption by other gas-guzzling consumers, including industries and power plants.
Construction of a total of 118 kilometre-long pipeline-Kolkata-Benapole (72 km) and Benapole-Jessore (46 km) -- will be required to pump the LNG from India into Bangladesh's national gas grid.
Several multilateral donors have agreed to provide a record US$800 million in loan to implement the power plant project.
Of the total lending, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $600 million and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will give $200 million.
Bangladesh government will provide the remaining $150 million for implementation of the plant.
The power plant will have two gas-fired units, each having 400-MW capacity to run on imported RLNG.
NWPGCL has already invited bids from potential firms to build the imported LNG-based combined cycle power plant.
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