Deal for first LNG terminal inked with Excelerate
It is expected to supply 500 million cubic feet LNG per day from the beginning of 2018
STAFF REPORTER
The countrys state-owned energy company, Petrobangla, and Excelerate Energy Bangladesh Limited (EEBL), a subsidiary of Texas-headquartered Excelerate Energy Ltd, yesterday ratified the terminal use agreement for establishing the first-ever floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU), popularly known as an LNG terminal, at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal.
Syed Ashfaquzzaman, secretary of Petrobangla, and Karlman Tham, business development manager (Asia region) of Excelerate Energy Ltd, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations at a signing ceremony at the Petrobangla headquarters.
Five years after an initiative to build an FSRU, Petrobangla signed an agreement with EEBL on February 25, 2015, to set up the countrys first FSRU. Petrobangla and EEBL signed the term sheet under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, to set up the terminal at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal.
After that agreement, EEBL conducted the metocean study on June 22, 2015, through the Maritime Research Institute (MARIN), a Dutch organisation of repute.
A metocean study determines the physical environment near an offshore platform.
EEBL submitted the draft terminal use agreement based on the findings of that study.
This agreement was later finalised with the help of local and international lawyers and foreign technical consultants.
As the terminal use agreement was ratified yesterday, EEBL will now conduct a geophysical study within the next two months.
The composition of the earths interior under the ocean would be determined with the help of the geophysical study.
After that, the company will conduct a geotechnical study with which it will test soil, conduct analysis, design and construction of foundations, slopes and retaining structures.
EEBL will also carry out a detailed engineering design and start the construction of the terminal after that.
In accordance with the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs of the Bangladesh government, Petrobangla had signed the agreement with EEBL for 15 years.
The terminal is expected to supply gas from the beginning of 2018.
The FSRU unit has the capacity to store 1,38,000 cubic metres of LNG and to supply 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).
During the signing ceremony, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, energy adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said he wanted to assure consumers and industrialists that even though the FSRU would initially supply 500 mmcfd, it would start to supply 1,000 mmcfd in a couple of years.
