The government hopes to initiate supply of gas from imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) by mid-2017 although necessary infrastructures like building of LNG receiving terminal and pipeline is not yet completed.
"Hopefully, we will be able to supply gas from imported LNG by mid-2017," said Mr AMA Muhith while proposing national budget for FY 2016 in the parliament Thursday.
Initiatives to install a LNG terminal and import LNG to meet ever-increasing energy demand are underway, he said.
Natural gas is a valuable resource but its estimated reserve is small in our country, said the finance minister.
As per preliminary estimate, the total gas reserve is 38.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) with extractable net reserve standing at 14.6 Tcf, he said.
Currently, gas is mainly used in power generation and industrial production. It is also used for household use in different cities of the country.
"In principle, we need to do away with allowing further household gas connection," said Mr Muhith.
Gas exploration activities have been strengthened, he said.
Officials from the Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said the government in January this year inked a term sheet for the terminal-use agreement with US Excelerate Energy Ltd Partnership to initiate the process of building the country's first floating LNG terminal.
The US firm will require carrying out of a 'met-ocean' study before inking the final terminal-use deal with the Petrobangla, said the officials.
Excelerate will also carry out a geotechnical study and detailed engineering design before starting construction of the LNG terminal which will be a floating storage and re-gasification unit, they added.
State-owned Petrobangla is now receiving bids from interested sponsors to install a 91-kilometre (km) pipeline to carry re-gasified imported LNG from Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal to Anowara in port city Chittagong to facilitate its transmission to user-ends.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com
