The government expects to sign the final liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal deal with Singapore-based Excelerate Energy Ltd by the end of this month, a Petrobangla official said yesterday. The partnership is being forged to build the country’s first floating LNG terminal on Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal. In another development, Petrobangla has recently assigned Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Co. Ltd, one of its subsidiaries, to handle certain LNG-related issues on its behalf.
Petrobangla’s director in charge of production sharing contracts (PSCs), Md Quamruzzaman, said the deal with Excelerate would probably be signed in the last week of February. “We are engaged in discussions with Excelerate to resolve some issues. It might take another 10–15 days,” he said, adding that they had earlier expected the deal to be inked by as late as December this year. Excelerate Energy has already carried out a met-ocean study and found that building the terminal would be viable. The firm will also carry out a geo-technical study and hammer out a detailed engineering design before starting construction. It will reportedly build the terminal within 16 months of signing the final deal. The LNG storage capacity of the unit will be 138,000 cubic metres. LNG imports might start in early 2017. On January 25, 2015, five years after the initiative was taken to build a floating storage and regasification unit, Petrobangla signed the agreement with Excelerate. Petrobangla will pay 0.474 cents per million BTU—a measure of the energy content in fuel—for the unit on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis for 15 years. It will receive the LNG within the range of 500–600 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd). Petrobangla will pay the port service charges and tax on behalf of Excelerate Energy during the period. A Petrobangla official said that once the terminal is set up, the government would have to import LNG from Qatar or other countries by paying USD 16 to USD 18 per unit. The Awami League-led government had, in its last term, decided to import LNG to feed the national grid by 500 mmcfd from 2013.