Qatar Petroleum to supply 1.25m tonnes LNG to Bangladesh
Signs deal with Vitol
Qatar Petroleum said it entered into a long-term agreement with Vitol, allowing the Dutch energy giant to supply 1.25 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas to Bangladesh per year.
Under the deal, LNG deliveries will commence later this year, further demonstrating Qatar's continued commitment to meeting the growing needs of its customers for reliable LNG supplies, said Qatar Petroleum on its website.
"We are pleased to sign this SPA [sale and purchase agreement] with Vitol," said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, minister of state for energy affairs of Qatar and president and CEO of Qatar Petroleum.
"We look forward to commencing deliveries under the SPA to further contribute to meeting Bangladesh's energy requirements. This SPA also highlights our strong ability to meet the requirements of our partners and customers."
On February 17, the government approved two proposals to buy a total of 67.2 lakh MMBTU (million British thermal unit) LNG from the spot market for Tk 623.64 crore to meet the growing demand for the super-chilled fuel.
Vitol Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore will supply the fuel.
In a spot market, financial instruments, such as commodities, currencies and securities, are traded for immediate delivery.
In September last year, Bangladesh moved to the spot market for the first time to purchase the fuel at a cheaper rate. At the time, Vitol Asia won the work order to deliver 3,490,200 MMBTUs for Tk 132.93 crore.
Bangladesh has two floating storage and regasification units.
Excelerate Energy of the US began supplying re-gasified LNG from its terminal in Moheshkhali in August 2017. It has a regasification capacity of 500 million cubic feet of gas per day.
In May 2019, Summit LNG Terminal Co Ltd, the country's second LNG terminal, began supplying re-gasified LNG. The unit has a capacity of supplying 500 million cubic feet of re-gasified LNG.