ডেস্ক নিউজ
The government is going to set up two land-based LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals at Matarbari of Cox’s Bazar, alongside two floating terminals to overcome the country’s gas crisis. To this end, two joint venture consulting firms have been shortlisted. Of these, one is Tokyo Gas Engineering Solutions Corporation (TGES) and Nippon Koei of Japan. The other joint venture bidder is American energy advisory company, Galway Group LLC, and Rina Consulting of Italy. Both parties are now negotiating the different terms and conditions for signing the contract, officials said.
According to the energy division, a total of seven bidders have submitted proposals to state-owned Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL), which were sent to the energy division for approval. “On March, 12, a meeting was held at the energy division, the two short listed joint venture firms were discussed. After approval from the finance committee, it will sign the contract, said an official.
Sources said the energy division has planned to set up two land-based LNG terminals with re-gasification capacity of a total 2,000 million cubic feet per day. However, Petrobangla will be able to extend the capacity later, if necessary. The government has also taken an initiative to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) at a reasonable price on the international spot market. To this end, the energy division will form two standing committees, officials said.
Bangladesh is now producing around 3200mmcfd of gas including 600mmcfd R-LNG. But the present gas demand is more than 4,000mmcfd. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told the parliament that the total amount of extractable gas reserve in the country was 10.63 tcf and daily production rate was 2,570 mcf as of January 1 this year. The gas reserve will exhaust in 11 years if the current rate of production continues.
“Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited has taken initiative to dig two new wells to explore gas from 2019 to 2021, 13 wells from 2022 to 2030 and 20 wells from 2031 to 2041,” he said.
The Energy Division sources said that gas demand in power generation and industrial units including fertilizer production, is increasing gradually. On the other hand, the gas reserves in the country’s own fields are gradually depleting. Against the backdrop of an ever-increasing gas demand, the government decided to import LNG in 2010 to meet the country’s dire energy deficit and finally the LNG import was started from 2018.
The country currently has two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) with a total regasification capacity of 1 billion cubic feet per day – equal to about 7.5 million tonnes a year. However, currently the R-LNG is supplying 600 mmcfd to the national grid.
