Bangladesh Halts LNG Imports, Due to Fault
Bangladesh has cancelled a cargo and asked its main supplier Qatar's RasGas to suspend deliveries while a fault with an underwater valve is remedied.
An 'actuator valve' between the Excelerate Energy-owned FSRU (floating import terminal) and subsea pipeline started leaking at 7pm local time November 3, forcing regasification operations to be halted.
Mohammad Quamruzzaman, managing director of Bangladesh's state-owned RPGCL which manages LNG operations, told NGW November 7 said it has already cancelled a regular 140,000 m3 LNG import cargo from RasGas because regasification at the first FSRU in the country has remained halted since the evening of November 3.
Petrobangla also requested RasGas not to ship LNG for Bangladesh until further instruction, he added.
Quamruzzaman hopes that regasification will resume by next week, as sea divers from a foreign firm have already reached the floating Moheshkhali LNG terminal to try to fix the problem.
Gas supplies across the country have been affected, with several gas-fired power plants and a fertiliser factory shut in the immediate aftermath in order to cope with the shortage of natural gas.
Around 0.327bn ft3/d was being regasified into the national gas grid until the FSRU suspended operations on November 3, according to state producer Petrobangla's statistics. Since then, Bangladesh's overall gas supply has declined to around 2.7bn ft3/d.
The shortage in Chattogram (formerly Chittagong) is acute, as the clients of the port city have been consuming only regasified LNG since Excelerate's FSRU Excellence started operations August 18, 2018.
Excellence first arrived at the Moheshkhali Island terminal on April 24 laden with a 136,000 m3 cargo of Qatari LNG, but technical issues and rough seas during Bangladesh's southwestern monsoon kept it stranded off the south coast of Chattogram for around three months between June and August.