LNG shortage remains unresolved

• Summit fully operational at Maheshkhali terminal, Accelerate cuts supply

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) crisis seems to be showing no signs of leaving the floating terminals in Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar. As LNG-carrying ships imported according to the schedule are not arriving, full gas supply is not being received from the two terminals. As a result, the ongoing gas crisis in the country is also not easing. However, gas supply has increased somewhat since last week.

The supply situation is unlikely to improve unless at least 11 to 12 LNG-carrying ships reach the two terminals in Maheshkhali every month. Now, five to six ships are arriving there per month. After an LNG-carrying ship arrived on Wednesday, gas supply from the terminal of local Summit Power Limited has increased. On the other hand, production at the terminal of US company Excelerate Energy has been reduced due to delays in the arrival of the next ship. As a result, the full capacity of the two terminals cannot be utilised. Yesterday Thursday, 731 million cubic feet of gas was being supplied from the two terminals. Summit was supplying 570 million cubic feet. However, the capacity of that terminal is 550 million cubic feet. Meanwhile, only 161 million cubic feet of gas from Excelerate, which has the same capacity, was being added to the national grid. A maximum of 1,100 million cubic feet of gas can be supplied from the two terminals.

Summit has become fully operational with new LNG. Meanwhile, Excelerate’s gas supply is declining as its LNG reserves are running out. Excelerate’s supply will remain at this level until a new LNG-carrying ship arrives. However, officials of Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) cannot say for certain when the next ship will arrive for this terminal. Although an LNG-carrying ship is scheduled to arrive in the first week of next month.

They said that a total of 33,000 million cubic feet of LNG gas is required per month to supply the full 1,100 million cubic feet of gas capacity of the two floating terminals in Maheshkhali. It must be ensured that 11 to 12 LNG ships regularly reach the terminals every month. But the required number of ships is not arriving. Even sufficient LNG is not available from the international spot market at high prices. According to Petrobangla’s calculations, an average of 750 million cubic feet of gas has been supplied from the two terminals throughout this week. Yesterday, the supply declined somewhat further to 731 million cubic feet. As gas supply is not increasing, the country’s gas crisis is not likely to ease completely soon. There is currently no opportunity for the difficulties of industries, residential consumers and those involved in the transport sector to decrease.