DHAKA: Bangladesh state-owned Petrobangla sought $1.4 billion from the government to foot LNG imports in 2018, which was around 77.77% of the estimated total cost of importing, LNG cell chief Mohammed Quamrumman said.
“We sought the funding from the government as subsidy as we would not be able to realize the LNG import costs through sales to consumers in the domestic market,” he said.
The domestic price of gas is $2.50-3/Mcf, which is much lower than international levels, Quamrumman said.
Petrobangla has estimated the total cost of LNG imports at around $1.8 billion/year from 2018 when Bangladesh’s first floating storage and regasification unit that is being developed by US-based Excelerate at Maheshkhali island in the Bay of Bengal, is expected to be ready.
The FSRU will have an initial handling capacity of around 500,000 Mcf/d and ultimately up to 700,000 Mcf/d of LNG.
Petrobangla planned to start importing around 500,000 Mcf/d of LNG from next year to cater to rising domestic demand, Quamrumman said.
It expects to get around $400 million/year through domestic sales of regasified LNG.
The proposal was now pending approval by the Ministry of Finance, Quamrumman said.
In December, officials said that Bangladesh was set to announce the selection of India’s Reliance Power to build a 500,000 Mcf/d FSRU at Maheshkhali island.
Petrobangla has also signed a contract with Summit LNG Terminal Company Private Limited for a second FSRU at Maheshkhali.
It signed a memorandum of understanding last year with India’s Petronet to build an onshore LNG import terminal at Kutubdia island with the capacity to handle around 5 million mt/year of imported LNG.
