QatarEnergy begins LNG supply to BD under second long-term deal

After the US's Excelerate Energy, Middle East's QatarEnergy has started supplying LNG to Bangladesh under its second long-term sales and purchase agreement (SPA).

The first LNG cargo from QatarEnergy under its second SPA reached the Moheshkhali floating storage and re-gasification unit, operated by the US-based company, and successfully delivered the LNG in the week ending February 20-27, a senior Petrobangla official told The Financial Express (FE) on Saturday.

The Qatari cargo carried around 138,000 cubic metres of LNG, he said.

QatarEnergy's media department did not comment following a request by FE.

Bangladesh signed, on June 1, 2023, a long-term LNG supply deal with QatarEnergy for up to 1.5 million tonnes per year (Mtpa) for a 15-year period starting in 2026.

The SPA, inked in Doha, has two components: for 2026, the first year of the deal, QatarEnergy will supply 12 LNG cargoes to Bangladesh, with the option of adding another 12 cargoes under specific conditions, said the Petrobangla official.

From 2027 until 2040, QatarEnergy will supply a confirmed 24 LNG cargoes, equivalent to around 1.5 Mtpa of LNG, he added.

QatarEnergy's LNG supply to Bangladesh under its second LNG SPA followed a similar start of LNG supply from US company Excelerate Energy last month.

With the supplies of LNG under two new LNG SPAs of Excelerate Energy and QatarEnergy, Bangladesh has been importing LNG under four separate LNG SPAs, said the Petrobangla official.

Previously, QatarEnergy and another Omani company were supplying LNG under two separate SPAs, with QatarEnergy starting supply from April 2018 and the Omani supplier from January 2019, he added.

Bangladesh has limited imports of LNG from the spot market after starting LNG imports under new contracts due to limited re-gasification capacity.

Bangladesh has so far only imported two LNG cargoes from the spot market in 2026, which is much lower than its imports during the previous year 2025, when it imported a total of 49 LNG cargoes from the spot market, the official added.

Bangladesh's two operational FSRUs -- Summit LNG and Excelerate Energy's Excellence -- have a combined re-gasification capacity of around 7.5 Mtpa of LNG, he said.

Bangladesh currently imports LNG under both long- and short-term SPAs from multiple suppliers and also sources LNG from the spot market to meet the country's mounting natural gas demand, said a senior official of state-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL).

Since Bangladesh's LNG imports began in 2018, it has imported around 35.39 million tonnes of LNG through 571 cargoes as of January 2026, according to official data from RPGCL.

Bangladesh's overall natural gas output currently hovers around 2,563 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), including 848 mmcfd of re-gasified LNG, according to Petrobangla's data as of February 26.

azizjst@yahoo.com