Bangladesh Lines up Spot Traders

Bangladesh now has agreements in place with a total of 15 global suppliers to import LNG from spot market, a senior official of state-run Petrobangla told NGW February 4. The companies include Japanese Mitsui, Italy's Eni, French Total, Australian Woodside, US Chevron Corp, Swiss Gunvor and local Summit Group.

"We have planned to import around one-fourth of our LNG requirement from spot LNG market," said the official requesting anonymity. The rest will come from long-term suppliers, he said. These are Qatar's RasGas and Oman Trading International (OTI). Bangladesh also has a letter of intent with Indonesian state Pertamina, for 1mn mt/yr. There is one floating storage and regasification unit owned by US's Excelerate Energy at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal. The country's second FSRU is expected to come online this April.

Petrobangla subsidiary RPGCL early last year selected 30 global firms alone or in consortia to deliver LNG on a spot basis following a competitive tender. Petrobangla has so far imported LNG through 15 regular cargoes and one commissioning cargo as of January 29, 2019. After regasification the gas will be blended with domestically produced gas in the pipeline netework.