The government has taken initiatives to import 3,000 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) LNG by 2041 to overcome the country’s gas crisis, energy division official said.

Energy and Mineral Resources Division Senior Secretary Md Anisur Rahman said, “At present the country’s gas demand is around 3,250 mmcfd where as we are producing 2,500mmcfd to 2,550mmcfd natural gas in local gas fields. The rest of the demand will be met through LNG import.”

The country currently has two Floating Storage Regasification Units (FSRUs) with a total regasification capacity of 1,000 mmcfd. However, currently the R-LNG is supplying 650 mmcfd to the national grid. The government is looking forward to importing 2,000 mmcfd LNG by 2030.

“The country’s gas demand is increasing rapidly due to the industrial and socio-economic development. However the gas supply for domestic use is depleting.

In this situation, the government is planning to import more Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Besides gas exploration activities will continue in onshore and offshore,” according to energy division official.

The government is going to set up two land-based LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) terminals with re-gasification capacity of a total 2,000 million cubic feet per day at Matarbari of Cox’s Bazar. To this end, two joint venture consulting firms have been shortlisted.

Of these, one is Tokyo Gas Engineering Solutions Corporation (TGES) and Nippon Koei of Japan. The other joint venture bidder is American energy advisory company, Galway Group LLC, and Rina Consulting of Italy. Both parties are now negotiating the different terms and conditions for signing the contract, officials said.

However, Petrobangla will be able to extend the capacity later, if necessary. The government has also taken an initiative to purchase Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at a reasonable price on the international spot market.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told the parliament that the total amount of extractable gas reserve in the country was 10.63 tcf and daily production rate was 2,570 mcf as of January 1 this year. The gas reserve will exhaust in 11 years if the current rate of production continues.

“Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited has taken initiative to dig two new wells to explore gas from 2019 to 2021, 13 wells from 2022 to 2030 and 20 wells from 2031 to 2041,” he said.

Against the backdrop of an ever-increasing gas demand, the government decided to import LNG in 2010 to meet the country’s dire energy deficit and finally the LNG import was started from 2018.

Of the two operational FSRUs, the US-based LNG company Excelerate Energy started supplying re-gasified LNG from its FSRU commercially from August 18, 2018, while local Summit Group started from April 29, 2019.

Each of the FSRUs has the capacity to re-gasify around 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of LNG.