Bangladesh LNG Import :Qatar agrees to supply 500mmcf LNG

Sources : The Government of Qatar has agreed to supply 500mmcf Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Bangladesh.

Mohamed Saleh Al-Sada, state minister for energy and industrial affairs, gave this assurance to Bangladesh’s delegation during a meeting between the two countries at Doha on Thursday, a top official of the energy ministry told BSS on Saturday.

To start negotiation with the Qatar government for importing LNG, a high-powered government team visited Qatar on June 1 and returned home on Saturday.

Energy Secretary Md Mesbahuddin led the Bangladesh team comprising members from the IMED, CPU (Central Procurement Unit), law ministry, energy ministry, Petrobangla and GTCL (Gas Transmission Company Ltd).

“We sat with the top officials of the Petroleum Department of the Government of Qatar to discuss installations of terminal and gas transmission line, price of LNG and other related issues of LNG import from Qatar,” official of the energy ministry said adding the team will submit a report on the visit to the PMO soon.

In February, the government formed a taskforce, headed by power and energy secretaries, for construction of an LNG terminal at Chittagong involving about one billion US dollars.

“During the meeting we sought all-out support including technology transfer and development of human resources from Qatar, however, we need more meetings to settle the issue,” he said.

To mitigate the ongoing energy crisis, especially in the Chittagong zone, the government has decided to import LNG to tackle the matter on an emergency basis.

The country at present is facing gas shortage of around 400 million cubic feet per day as Petrobangla supplies around 1,960-1,980mmcfd gas against the demand for 2,400mmcf.

According to Petrobangla, Bangladesh would need around six to seven million US dollar to import 500 million cubic feet of LNG per da