First LNG Vaporised in Bangladesh

Vaporised LNG from Qatar found its way into the Bangladesh gas grid for the first time August 2o. Existing and new consumers of the south Asian country’s port city Chattogram – which had been known until April as Chittagong, since its founding in 1863 – are now collectively receiving between 75mn ft³ and 100mn ft³/d, Petrobangla chairman Abul Mansur Md Faizullah told NGW August 20. The amount will gradually rise to around 300mn ft³/d by early October.

Bangladesh initiated the move to import LNG in November 2010, when state Petrobangla tendered for a floating LNG terminal. The LNG import terminal project was brought on a fast-track route for implementation to ease the country's energy crisis and accelerate economic growth, on January 2014.

The regasified LNG is entering into the pipeline network through the newly completed 91-km Moheshkhali-Anwara pipeline.

Excelerate Energy earlier moored its floating storage and regasification unit to its docking facility at the Moheshkhali Island terminal in the Bay of Bengal August 5 and started regasifying LNG August 12.

Excelerate’s vessel Excellence, carrying 136,000 m³ of LNG from Qatar, arrived at the terminal April 24, and was due to start injecting gas into the pipeline network for consumption in Chattogram from May 7, but technical issues and rough seas had kept the vessel stranded off the south coast for more than three months.