Bangladesh Finally Hooks Up FSRU
Bangladesh finally hooked up the country's first ever floating LNG import terminal, complete with an LNG cargo aboard, to a subsea pipeline at Moheshkhali Island – enabling it to be unloaded.
The hook-up took place August 5, the 103rd day since the floating storage and regasification unit Excellence arrived offshore the Bay of Bengal April 24, state-run Petrobangla chairman Abul Mansur Md Faizullah told NGW August 7. "Now we are carrying out pre-commissioning works before initiating the supply of first regasified LNG to consumers," he said, adding that consumers in Bangladesh's main seaport city Chottogram are set to receive regas from the vessel starting next week.
Technical issues, rough seas and pipeline construction delays kept Bangladesh's first FSRU stranded offshore in the Bay of Bengal for more than three months, highlighting the difficulties of opening new LNG demand centers in emerging Asian markets.
"As previous several attempts were in vain, we assigned a special team of drivers from Singapore last week for hooking up the FSRU with the subsea pipeline," state-owned Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Co. Ltd said; the mission was successfully completed August 5. RPGCL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Petrobangla, deals with LNG trade issues in Bangladesh.
FSRU Excellence is on charter from US shipowner Excelerate Energy, following agreements signed in July 2017. It has 136,000 m3 of Qatari LNG aboard. Previous attempts to dock the FSRU were thwarted at least four times, with a project engineer saying at least once waves of over 2.5 meters were to blame.
Despite its rocky start, Bangladesh is set to become a key LNG importer in the coming years, supported by growing consumption, dwindling domestic reserves and a healthy pipeline of LNG import projects.
However, even though the FSRU was successfully moored at the weekend, it will still only operate at around half of its 3.75mn mt/year (0.5bn ft3/d) capacity, as the construction of the necessary pipelines has yet to be completed, a Petrobangla official told NGW.
A 30-km pipeline between Anwara and Fouzdarhat seems to be the major hurdle, he said, adding that another 91-km segment of the pipeline between Moheshkhali and Anwara has already been completed and tested that will enable regasified LNG to be piped to Chottogram. However the current pipeline infrastructure only has capacity to carry around 0.25bn ft3/d, half of the LNG project's regasification capacity, according to a senior official with state-owned Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company which supplies the key consuming region of Chottogram.
Excelerate will charge $ 0.49 per ‘000 ft3 against its service from day one of its charter to Petrobangla. The latter is to buy regasified LNG from the terminal on the take-or-pay basis under its contract.