OMAN'S LNG FOR BANGLADESH

PLATTS - Bangladesh is expecting first lean LNG imports from Oman Trading International from May 2019, as part of a sales and purchase agreement signed in May 2018 for 1 million mt/year of LNG over 10 years, managing director with state-owned Rupantorita Praktritik Gas Company Md Quamruzzaman said Tuesday.

This will be Bangladesh's second long-term LNG contract, as the south Asian country seeks to bridge the widening gap between depleting domestic gas reserves and growing consumption from the industry, power plants and fertilizer sectors.

RPGCL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Petrobangla in charge of Bangladesh's LNG imports, and OTI agreed last week the start date of the supply deal, Quamruzzaman said.

The SPA was priced at around 11.9% of the three-month average of Brent crude oil prices plus 40 cents/MMBtu, and states that payments are to be made within 25 days of delivery.

The deal comes with a degree of volume flexibility. Petrobangla has the option of increasing LNG imports to 1.5 million mt/year, or lowering it to 900,000 mt/year without having to pay penalties.

Excelerate Energy's floating, storage and regasification unit Excellence, Bangladesh's first LNG import facility, started commercial operations in August, while the second FSRU, owned by Summit Group, is expected to come online by April 2019.

Bangladesh received first LNG from its 15-year contract with Qatar's RasGas in September. The contract, for 2.5 million mt/year of LNG, was priced at 12.5% of the three-month average of Brent crude plus a 0.5% constant.

Petrobangla also has a preliminary agreement with Switzerland-based AOT Energy for 1.25 million mt/year over 15 years, and Indonesia's Pertamina for 1 million mt/year over 10 years.

Bangladesh has also shortlisted another two dozen LNG suppliers to purchase LNG on a spot basis, Quamruzzaman said.

Bangladesh's current natural gas production is hovering around 2.75 Bcf/d, against demand of nearly 4 Bcf/d, according to Petrobangla, and the country's LNG consumption is expected to reach 30 million mt/year by 2041, according to a recent report prepared by Copenhagen-based research firm Ramboll in association with Geological Survey of Denmark and EQMS Consulting Limited.

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Earlier:

2018, October, 22, 11:25:00 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.

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.