The government is scheduled to take a unanimous decision to install the country’s first floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Maheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 2012. To ensure that the idea materialises, policymakers of the energy sector will sit down today at the energy ministry, with the energy adviser to the Prime Minister, Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, in the chair. The meeting will be attended by the state minister for energy and power, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) secretary, energy secretary, power secretary as well as senior officials from the law ministry, energy division and Petrobangla, according to the energy ministry.
The government had decided to import LNG on an emergency basis and had planned to start supply of LNG to the national grid by the end of 2012, but failed to implement the project because of poor responses by the bidders.
In February 2010, the government formed a taskforce, headed by the power and energy secretary, for constructing the LNG terminal at Chittagong, worth around USD 1 billion, to solve the ongoing energy crisis in the Chittagong areas.
On February 9, Petrobangla floated the tender to pick competent bidders for the LNG terminal project with responses from 10 companies. Petrobangla has faced a series of hurdles in reaching this point. It had to defer the bid submission dates thrice as no company evinced interest in implementing the project.
“Last October, we (Petrobangla) submitted a report on setting up the LNG terminal under a tender procedure. The energy ministry, however, has started the process under an unsolicited deal, mentioning that the shortlisted firms under the tender process failed to comply with the tender requirements,” Petrobangla chairman Dr Hossain Monsur said.
In the initial stage, it selected six bidders and sought submission letters. The companies which primarily qualified were: Gas de France, Golar LNG Energy Management of Singapore, Teekay Shipping Canada, Vitol Singapore, Samsung South Korea, joint venture of Astra Oil (the Netherlands) and Excelerate (USA), Hiranandi Pvt Co of India with Hoegth LNG, Norway, and BW Gas Norway.
Petrobangla has already negotiated with the shortlisted firm, Excelerate Energy-Astra Consortium, under the tendering process, as it is the only bidder that fulfils nearly all conditions, a Petrobangla official said.
The company has already confirmed financing for the infrastructure of the project without credit support, Petrobangla officials said, adding that the company has merely sought a sovereign guarantee.
“Now we hear that the energy ministry will invite four shortlisted firms for one-to-one negotiations to set up the terminal, according to officials. They said the energy and mineral resources division secretary will lead the negotiations as the head of the terminal processing committee,” a senior Petrobangla official told The Independent. Earlier, a meeting was held to solve the crisis, but it was postponed as energy secretary Md Mozammel Haque Khan opposed the ministry’s procedure to set up the terminal in accordance with Petrobangla’s proposal.
“Exelerate offered USD 0.39 per million BTU, which sounds good, but it also asked for something else that needs to be discussed,”
a senior official of the energy ministry said.
According to Petrobangla, Bangladesh would need around USD 6 to 7 million per day to import 500 million cubic feet of LNG from abroad.
At present, the country is facing a natural gas shortage of around 400 million cubic feet per day as Petrobangla can supply around 1,960 to 1,980 mmcfd of gas against the demand for 2,400 mmcfd.
-With The Independent input
