Bangladesh makes LNG regas terminal a priority

Bangladesh is prioritising the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal to ease an energy crisis in the country’s Chittagong region. The country’s recently elected Prime Minister instigated the fast-track implementation of the project at a meeting in Dhaka yesterday. Minister of Finance, AMA Muhith, said that the terminal would be completed with two years.

The terminal project, to be operated by state-owned Petrobangla, includes a floating LNG (FLNG) import terminal with a 5 million tpa regasification capacity in the Bay of Bengal, berthing and mooring facilities for LNG tankers with 138 000 – 260 000 m³ capacity.

Petrobangla have gone to tender over the construction contract, which would involve the building and subsequent operation of the LNG terminal for a period of 15 years. “All the related tenders have been issued and the government has received different offers including the government to government one”, said Muhith. A US consortium of Astra Oil and Excelerate Energy is expected to undertake the project.

Currently Bangladesh has an agreement with Qatar over the import of LNG until 2015, having revised an earlier MoU. The Asian country expects to have import infrastructure in place by 2015 to import LNG for a region in desperate need of energy.

Edited from various sources by Ted Monroe

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/23012014/bangladeshi_lng_terminal_receives_fast-track_orders/