Gas supply may improve next week

Gas supply in the country is expected to improve to some extent from the next week as a floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU), known as LNG terminal, is scheduled to resume operation from April 3 after end of its routine maintenance work.

According to official sources, one of the two FSRUs went into maintenance programme last month, leading to a decline in the gas supply to the national grid.

As a result, the country's gas supply came down by 500 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) to about 2,655 from.

Of the two FSRUs set up in Maheshkhali, one having 650 MMCFD capacity is owned and operated by US-based Excelerate Energy and another, having 500 MMCFD capacity, is owned and operated by Summit Group.

"Recently, the FSRU of Summit Group came back from the maintenance programme. We hope it will resume operation from April 3," Engr. Md. Kamruzzaman Khan, Director (Operation & Mines) of Petrobangla, told UNB.

He also said resuming operation of the Summit's FSRU will increase the gas supply by 500 MMCFD to the national grid.

He said currently, Petrobangla can get a maximum 650 MMCFD gas supply from one FSRU. "But after Summit FSRU's resumption of supply, we will get 1100-1150 MMCFD gas," he added.

However, when summit's FSRU resumes operation, it will be able to increase the supply to maximum 3150, when the country's gas demand is about 4000 MMCFD, said another Petrobangla official.