Summit teams up with Japanese firms for $3b LNG-to-power project

Summit Power International said yesterday it signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp and subsidiary Diamond Gas International to develop a $3 billion LNG-to-power project in Bangladesh.

Under the MoU, subsidiary Summit Corp, group company Summit Holdings and the Japanese firms agreed to develop an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) onshore receiving terminal with regasification capacity of up to 1,500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) at Matarbari, Moheskhali, in the Bay of Bengal.

They also agreed to develop two 1,200 megawatt (MW) gas turbine combined cycle power generators, relevant high voltage transmission lines and the import of LNG.

“This MoU will help Summit Power International support Bangladesh's fast-growing energy, power and technology needs,” said Muhammed Aziz Khan, chairman of Summit Power International, which is incorporated in Singapore.

“The two groups are well-positioned to uniquely benefit from opportunities arising from the Bangladesh government's move to raise LNG imports to meet the country's domestic natural gas shortfall and expand the country's power generation capacity.”

The signing of the MoU was witnessed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang at the Bangladesh-Singapore Business Forum 2018, according to a statement of Summit Power International.

Summit Power is the largest independent power producer in Bangladesh, representing about 21 percent of the country's private power market last year, the company said.

Summit Power is set in April to become the first Bangladeshi firm to list in the Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGX), as it seeks to raise funds to invest in assets across Asia.

With up to 30 percent of the more than 160 million people in Bangladesh lacking access to electricity, Summit hopes to invest in projects to meet that expected increase in demand, Khan told Reuters in February.

Bangladesh will require about 7 million tonnes of LNG by 2022 and similar volumes of coal by 2024, Khan had said then.

Diamond Gas International is a wholly-owned LNG sales subsidiary that Mitsubishi Corp established in Singapore.