The government will sign the final deal with Singapore-based Excelerate Energy Limited Partnership this month for building the country’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal.
“We hope that we will be able to sign the deal by December. We are now discussing some issues with Excelerate Energy for inking the deal,” a Petrobangla official told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Excelerate Energy has already carried out a met-ocean study and found building the terminal viable, he added.
On January 25 this year, five years after an initiative was made to build a floating storage and re-gasification unit, Petrobangla signed an agreement with a Singapore-based firm to set up the LNG terminal.
The firm will also carry out a geo-technical study and detailed engineering design before starting the construction.
It will build the terminal within 16 months of signing the final deal. LNG import might start in early 2017.
Petrobangla will pay 0.474 cents per million BTU (mmbtu) – a measure of the energy content in fuel – for the unit on a build-own-operate-transfer basis for 15 years. It will receive the LNG within the range between 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) and 600mmcfd.
The LNG storage capacity of the unit will be 138,000 cubic metres.
Petrobangla will pay the port service charges and tax on behalf of Excelerate Energy during the period.
A Petrobangla official said once the terminal is set up, the government would have to import LNG from Qatar or other countries by paying $16-$18 per unit.
The Awami League-led government in its last term decided to import LNG to feed the national grid by 500mmcfd from 2013.
State-owned Gas Transmission Company Limited also moved to lay a 91km Moheshkhali-Anowara gas transmission pipeline to carry re-gasified LNG from the terminal to shore.
Considering the country’s ongoing and future gas crisis, Petrobangla took the initiative to install the LNG terminal.
At present, the country’s gas production is about 2,700mmcfd against a demand of 3,300mmcfd.