Bangladesh Inks Crude-indexed LNG Contract

Bangladesh inked July 14 the country's first ever deal to import LNG, a new fuel for the country, to meet the mounting natural gas demand. Qatar's RasGas and Bangladesh's state-owned Petrobangla have finally inked the much expected initial deal over importing 2.5mn mt/year of lean LNG for 15 years, a senior Petrobangla official told NGW.

A delegation from RasGas arrived Dhaka July 12 aiming to ink the initial agreement as the previous move to ink the deal failed the week before as the sides could not reach any final decision at over pricing then, said the official of Petrobangla requesting anonymity.

Both the parties talked about different pricing formula again and decided that the pricing would be linked to the price of international crude oil, said the official requesting anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Other issues including quantity, the mode of payment and tenure of agreement were also discussed during the July 13 meeting, he added. The official did not say anything further, saying it as 'confidential.'

Petrobangla chairman Abul Mansur Md Faizullah said in late June that Bangladesh had finalised preliminary government-to-government negotiations with Qatar's RasGas during a visit to the Middle Eastern country then to import the fuel, a new development for the country. The price remained the sole outstanding issue, said Petrobangla's LNG Cell manager Kazi Md Anwarul Azim, who took part in June negotiations with RasGas in Qatar.

The final sales and purchase agreement is slated to be inked in August after receiving approval from the country's cabinet committee, he added.

M Azizur Rahman