Underwater valve damage halts LNG supply

Re-gasification in the country's first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal has remained suspended since Saturday evening owing to the damage of an underwater hydraulic valve.

The 'actuator valve' in between the FSRU (floating, storage, re-gasification unit) and subsea pipeline started leaking at 7.0 pm on Saturday, resulting in total halt of the re-gasification at the Excelerate Energy's terminal, a senior official of state-run Gas Transmission Company Ltd (GTCL) said.

Gas supply across the country has been facing an acute setback since then.

The sufferings of households mounted while production squeezed in industrial units.

The authorities had to shut several gas-fired power plants and a fertiliser factory in the aftermath of the supply halt.

"It would take around 10 days to fix the problem. Spare parts and special divers will need to be brought from abroad," he said.

Gas crisis in Chattogram remains acute as clients of the port city have been consuming re-gasified LNG alone since the initiation of its commercial supply on August 18, 2018.

The Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd (KGDCL), dedicated to the Chattogram region, is receiving 170 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) less gas than it would get before the termination of re-gasification at the LNG import terminal, a senior company official said.

In the pre-termination period, the KGDCL was getting around 390 mmcfd of gas - around 320 mmcfd as re-gasified LNG and the rest from the national gas grid, he said.

But due to the damage of the valve, the state-run company is now receiving around 220 mmcfd of gas from national gas grid, the official added.

Electricity generation from three gas-fired power plants - Rauzan and two units of Shikalbaha -has been halted and the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) has been shut to cope with the short supply of natural gas.

Meanwhile, production in industries was disrupted.

Cooking in households in different areas in the capital hampered due to gas supply shortfall coupled with low pressure as Dhaka and its adjoining areas are getting less gas.

"We had to buy breakfast from the restaurant this morning as we failed to prepare it at home due to gas crisis," said a Khilgaon resident.

Residents of Mirpur, Shahbag, Kalabagan, Paribag, Uttara, Bashabo, and Jatrabari were the worst sufferers.

Motorised vehicles were seen in long queue in front of different CNG (compressed natural gas) filling stations to get CNG filled in.

Officials said Excelerate Energy's vessel Excellence arrived at Moheshkhali terminal carrying the country's first LNG on April 24.

But it connected to the subsea pipeline network on August 05 and commenced injecting the first regasified gas on August 12.

Technical issues and rough seas during the June-August south-western monsoon kept it stranded off the south coast of Chittagong for months.

Excelerate Energy claimed 'force majeure,' while Petrobangla claimed liquidated damage (LD) over the issue, which is still pending for disposal.

Petrobangla, however, has been counting 'capacity payment' as it failed to fully utilise the terminal from the day one.

The state-run corporation has so far utilised around 65 per cent capacity of the Excelerate's FSRU in maximum by re-gasifying around 320mmcfd of gas, a senior official said.

While 35 per cent capacity of the US company's vessel remains unused, the state-run oil, gas and mineral corporation would have to pay its full capacity, he added.

The daily payment the Petrobangla owes to Excelerate Energy is around US$ 232,000 (Tk 19.72 million), no matter it re-gasifies less or the entire capacity of the FSRU, according to the deal.

Excelerate's FSRU- Excellence-has the capacity to re-gasify around 500 mmcfd equivalent of LNG, the Petrobangla official said.

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