Govt to buy LNG from Excelerate under 15-year pact

Bangladesh will purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Excelerate Gas Marketing Ltd Partnership, a subsidiary of Excelerate Energy, under a 15-year contract from 2026. 

The cabinet committee on purchase approved the draft sales and purchase agreement with the US giant, which has a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in Moheshkhali.

Besides, the committee approved the expansion of the capacity of the FSRU. The unit is now able to re-gasify 500 million cubic feet gas per day (mmcfd) and it will supply 600 mmcfd after the expansion.

Excelerate will deliver around 0.85 million tonnes of LNG per year in 2026 and 2027 and it will go up to 1 million tonnes annually from 2028 to 2040.

The purchase committee gave its nod to the pricing formula, which will be based on 13.35 percent of the Brent crude oil price on the day plus $0.30 per million British thermal unit.

Brent crude price was around $88 per barrel yesterday, meaning per MMbtu of LNG will cost $12 as per contract.

In the same meeting, the government approved a proposal seeking to buy a shipment of 33.60 lakh MMbtu LNG with a cost of Tk 762.36 crore from the international spot market. The price will be $17.55 per unit.

Vitol Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore will supply the fuel.

Currently, Bangladesh is importing 1.8-2.5 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar and 1-1.5 million tonnes of LNG from Oman under long-term contracts.

Recently, the country signed two separate deals to import an additional 3 million tonnes LNG from both countries in 2026.

Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation received the nod to import 15 lakh tonnes of crude oil in 2024 from Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia and ADNOC of the United Arab Emirates through a direct purchase method.

Besides, the cabinet committee approved two solar power plants in Jamalpur and Munshiganj.

The 180MW unit in Jamalpur will be built by a joint venture of China-based Hangzhou Boiler Company Ltd and locally owned Max Infrastructure Ltd.

Munshinganj's 130MW plant will be set up by a joint venture of Energon Renewables (BD) Ltd and PWR Energy Trading LLC.

Bangladesh Power Development Board will purchase electricity from the plants for 20 years at a cost of $0.09 per kilowatt-hour and $0.10, respectively.

Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board has received the permission to procure around 48,600 electric poles for distribution in the Khulna region. Per pole will cost Tk 28,560.