BANGLADESH LNG STOPPED

PLATTS - Bangladesh has terminated talks with Indian utility Reliance Power to build a new floating storage and regasification unit for LNG imports at Kutubdia Island near Chattogram port, a senior official at the LNG Cell said Thursday.

The move will limit Bangladesh to just two FSRU projects, capping its future LNG imports. Bangladesh has canceled at least three small-scale FSRU projects recently.

The official said a high-powered committee of the government backed down from the final round of negotiations last week for the 3.75 million mt/year capacity FSRU.

Reliance Power had signed a memorandum of understanding with state-owned Petrobangla to build the FSRU-based LNG import terminal more than three years ago, but inadequate funding support, coupled with initial hiccups to hook up with the first FSRU prompted the government to cancel its plan for another facility, another senior official at Petrobangla said.

Petrobangla had sought $1.4 billion in fiscal guarantees from the Ministry of Finance before finalizing the deal with Reliance Power but it failed to obtain them.

Bangladesh is, however, going ahead with Reliance Power to build a 718 MW gas-fired power plant at Meghnaghat in Narayanganj, 24 km south of the capital Dhaka, the official said. It will get 110,000 Mcf/d of imported LNG supplied by Petrobangla via a pipeline.

Reliance Power will also sign a power purchase agreement and an implementation agreement with state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board to sell electricity from the plant.

State-owned Gas Transmission Co. Ltd. will undertake the construction of a gas pipeline from Moheshkhali Island, where Bangladesh's first FSRU is located, to Bakhrabad city. It will build another gas pipeline from Kutumbupur to Meghnaghat to supply gas to the power plant.

Reliance Power will pay a wheeling charge to GTCL for using the pipeline, the Petrobangla official added.

Bangladesh's maiden FSRU -- Excelerate Energy's vessel Excellence -- arrived at Moheshkhali Island on April 24, but was stranded off the south coast of Chittagong for more than three months due to delays. Petrobangla started regular LNG imports from Qatar's RasGas from September 9.

Bangladesh's second FSRU with a similar capacity is expected to start up in early 2019. It is being built by Summit Group, in partnership with Japan's Mitsubishi and US' GE.

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Earlier: 

2018, September, 10, 12:25:00 BANGLADESH LNG ENERGY: $3 BLN PLATTS - Germany's Siemens AG and Bangladesh's state-run North-West Power Generation Company Ltd Friday signed a joint development agreement to develop a 3,600 MW power plant at Payra in southern Bangladesh that will run on regasified LNG.

2018, August, 20, 14:05:00 MITSUBISHI BUYS 25% BALNGADESH LNG PLATTS - Japan's Mitsubishi has agreed to acquire a 25% interest in Bangladesh's Summit LNG import project, which includes a floating, storage and regasification unit, with the remaining 75% held by Summit Corporation, the Japanese LNG trader said in a statement late last week.

2018, June, 4, 13:05:00 BANGLADESH LNG UP EIA - In April 2018, Bangladesh became the newest country to begin imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). In the next two years, six more countries—Panama, Gibraltar, Russia, Philippines, Ghana, and Bahrain—are expected to start importing LNG, adding a combined 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of new regasification import capacity.

2017, September, 27, 13:30:00 QATAR - BANGLADESH LNG RasGas Company Limited sealed a landmark 15-yr LNG Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla). The agreement was signed in Doha by Mr. Hamad Mubarak Al-Muhannadi, CEO of RasGas, and Mr. Abdul Mansur Md Faizullah, Petrobangla Chairman.

2017, April, 21, 20:30:00 BANGLADESH'S LNG TERMINAL State-owned Petrobangla has inked final deals with Summit LNG Terminal Co., a subsidiary of the Summit Group, to development Bangladesh's second floating LNG terminal.