Gas supply likely to improve from next week

Gas supply in Bangladesh is likely to improve from next week as Summit’s floating LNG-regasification unit is expected to reach the Moheshkhali mooring facility on Sunday.

After reaching Moheshkhali, the unit will be tied up with the mooring facility before initiating liquefied natural gas (LNG) re-gasification, a senior Petrobangla official said.

The Floating Storage and Re-gasification Unit (FSRU), known as the LNG terminal, is expected to initiate LNG re-gasification after four to five days, according to the official.

Sources said the gas supply across the country may increase with the resumption of LNG re-gasification from the FSRU.

Several new LNG-fired power plants might get gas to generate electricity as a consequence, he added.

The country’s overall LNG re-gasification will increase to 1,100 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) after the resumption of the Summit’s FSRU from the previous 1,000 mmcfd.

The FSRU ceased operation in mid-January for overhauling in Singapore.

According to official sources, one of the two FSRUs ceased operation in mid-January for overhauling in Singapore, leading to a decline in the gas supply to the national grid.

As a result, the country’s gas supply came down by 500 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) to about 2,655 MMCFD.

Despite capacity constraints in LNG re-gasification, the government, however, has ramped up imports of LNG from the spot market recently because of falling prices of spot LNG in the international market, said sources.

The corporation is importing three spot LNG cargoes during May and four during April, among the highest spot LNG imports in a single month, the official adds.

Separately, the country's two long-term LNG suppliers from the Gulf region- Qatargas and OQ Trading - are also supplying LNG in line with their annual delivery programmes.

The US-based Excelerate Energy's FSRU-Excellence is currently re-gasifying around 621 mmcfd of LNG, around 3.50 per cent above its official capacity of 600 mmcfd, to ensure better gas supply across Bangladesh.

A couple of months back, Excellence also had completed overhauling with expanded capacity to reinitiate LNG regasification during mid-January.

With the capacity enhancement Excellence's LNG regasification capacity increased to around 170,000 cubic meters with a send-out capacity of 600 mmcfd from its previous capacity of 138,000 cubic meters and send-out capacity of 500mmcfd.

The country's overall natural gas supply is currently hovering around 2,655 mmcfd, including 621 mmcfd of regasified LNG, and there remains a huge unmet demand for the fuel especially from industries, according to official data as of March 29.

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