The government has planned to import eight liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes from the spot market for the second half (H2) of 2023 in addition to scheduled imports from the long-term suppliers.
The imports from the spot market would be one-third less during the July-December period than the H1 (January-June) 2023.
State-run Petrobangla is set to import eight LNG cargoes from the spot in H2, Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker told the FE on Thursday.
This is for the first time that Bangladesh floated tender and awarded contracts to buy more than two LNG cargoes from the spot market at one go, he said, adding that it is to cash in on the current low ebb of LNG prices in the international market.
The government has already approved importing a total of 12 LNG cargoes from the spot market for the period from February last to June next.
Apart from the spot market, Petrobangla is scheduled to import a total of 29 LNG cargoes from its two long term suppliers – Qatargas and Oman Trading International – during the second half of this year. By the end of June, their total deliveries would stand at 27 cargoes.
The government started importing LNG from the spot market from February this year after hiking natural gas prices by up to around 178.88 per cent for industries, power plants and commercial entities.
State-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Petrobangla, is likely to float tenders on monthly basis to purchase all the spot LNG cargoes of each month at one go to reduce import costs.
Bangladesh recently awarded contracts to three separate companies for supplying four LNG cargoes into Bangladesh’s latest spot tender for June deliveries to the Moheshkhali floating storage and re-gasification units (FSRUs).
Vitol Asia Pte Ltd will supply two LNG cargoes for June 1-2 and June 14-15 deliveries at US$10.9788 per million British thermal unit (MMBTU) and $11.8888 per MMBTU respectively, while Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd will supply one LNG cargo for June 8-9 delivery at the maximum price of $ 12.47 per MMBTU and the remaining one cargo will be supplied by Excelerate Energy LP at $12.19 per MMBTU for June 23-24 delivery.
Bangladesh in the last month too bought two LNG cargoes at a time and got lower prices as French energy company TotalEnergies was awarded contract to supply two LNG cargoes for May 16-17 and May 25-26 deliveries to the Moheshkhali FSRU at $13.33 per MMBTU and $13.28 per MMBTU respectively.
Previously, Bangladesh would buy one spot LNG cargo in each tender, said the Petrobangla chairman.
“We will continue the process of buying more spot LNG cargoes through a single tender until we feel that the LNG price trend in the international market is suitable for us,” he added.
The June import of four spot LNG cargoes will be the highest since resumption of the LNG purchases from the spot market in February last.
Bangladesh broke the hiatus of over seven months of spot LNG imports with buying the cargo of TotalEnergies, which was delivered during February 21-22 to Moheshkhali FSRU at $19.78 per MMBTU.
The country’s natural gas supply is currently hovering around 2.77 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) including around 711 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) re-gasified LNG, according to Petrobangla’s official data as on May 02, 2023.
LNG is re-gasified in two 3.75 million tonnes per year (MTPA) capacity FSRUs at Moheshkhali island in the Bay of Bengal.
Source: Financial Express