Bangladesh Begins Regasifying LNG
Excelerate Energy has begun regasifying Bangladesh's first imported LNG during the afternoon of August 12 into the regional pipeline network, state-run RPGCL managing director Md Quamruzzaman told NGW August 13. He said pressure in the pipeline needs to be increased gradually to a required level before supplying the regasified LNG to consumer ends.
Quamruzzaman hoped that consumers in the nearby port city Chattogram (new name of Chittagong) would get the first regasified LNG within a couple of days. Excelerate moored its floating storage and regasification unit to its docking facility at the Moheshkhali Island terminal in the Bay of Bengal on August 5 and subsequently began pre-commissioning work.
Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Co Ltd (RPGCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Petrobangla, deals with LNG trade into Bangladesh.
The floating storage and regas unit (FSRU) vessel Excellence, carrying 136,000 m3 of lean LNG from Qatar, arrived nearby April 24 and was due to start injecting gas into the pipeline network for consumption in Chattogram from May 7, but technical issues and rough seas had kept the vessel stranded off the south coast of Chittagong for more than three months. (Excellence is pictured above, courtesy of Qatargas)
The FSRU's full import capacity, however, is constrained by the fact that the construction of the necessary pipelines is yet to be completed. The 30 km pipeline between Anwara and Fouzdarhat seems to be the major hurdle, while the 91 km segment of the pipeline between Moheshkhali and Anwara has already been completed and tested.
The current infrastructure only has capacity for half of the 3.75 million mt/year LNG project's regasification capacity, said a senior official with state-owned Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company, which supplies the key consuming region of Chattogram. Bangladesh's maiden LNG cargo is part of a 15-year long-term contract signed in 2017 between Petrobangla and Qatar's RasGas for 2.5mn mt/year of LNG, priced at 12.5% of the three-month average of Brent plus an additional 0.5%.