Partial gas supply has begun in Chittagong, as a floating LNG terminal in the Bay of Bengal at Maheshkhali in Cox's Bazar has been partially commissioned.
An official of Petrobangla said that the terminal was partially commissioned at 10:12pm on Friday.
Incidentally, the terminal was shut down when a mechanical fault occurred at the LNG terminal resulting in 500 million cubic feet of gas supply being cut off.
Chittagong's gas supply was cut off as a consequence. Meanwhile, there was a surge in the gas issue in various parts of the country.
The LNG terminal is anticipated to take some time to reach full capacity, albeit certain sections are now functioning properly.
According to Petrobangla sources, imported LNG is converted (regasified) at two floating LNG terminals in Maheshkhali and supplied to the pipeline.
One of the terminals is US company Accelerate Energy and the other is Summit LNG Terminal. These two terminals were supplying 850 million cubic feet of LNG per day. They require maintenance (renovation) every five years.
On November 1, 2023, maintenance on Accelerate Energy's terminal commenced. After maintenance was finished last Thursday, many attempts were made to restart the terminal, but gas could not be supplied.
The Summit LNG terminal was also emptied and scheduled to go for maintenance last Thursday.
However, problems arose as Accelerate's terminal could not be launched until Friday morning.
