Bangladesh to join booming South Asian LNG Club

Bangladesh recently announced her plans to enter in the global LNG market plagued by oversupply for the last few years. Currently, Pakistan and India import LNG in South Asia. Collectively, South Asia and Pakistan import more than 25 million tones, which make nearly 8 percent of the total global demand last year.

But with demographic changes taking its toll on the energy demands, Bangladesh is all set to join the South Asian energy club. Numerous state and private partnerships projects have been launched in Pakistan to increase her LNG exports; only recently Pakistan announced that it aims to open two more LNG terminals in the country. Local production has helped Pakistan with the infrastructure development and usage for LNG, however as the demand continues to outpace supply the South Asian countries are making their bets to keep up with the demand.

Bangladesh’s Roar

Experts predict that with population amounting to more than 60 million inhabitants, Bangladesh could import as much as 2500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of LNG which equals to around 17.5 million tons per year by 2025.

Bangladesh is planning to inaugurate several Floating Storage and Re-gasification Units (FSRU), in the country. First one is being created with the help of US financing, which is set to start operating from next year. The country is currently working on development of two FSRU’s on Moheshkhali Port in the Bay of Bengal; the terminal will start importing cargoes by July 2018.

Two more FSRU’s are under planning, although no final date has been set by the Authorities. The State Minister anticipates that with changing demographics and the subsequent rise in demand, the country expects to import than 2000 to 2500 mmcfd gas by year 2025. Combining these with the import quantities of Pakistan and India, total LNG import in South Asia could amount to75- 80 million tones of LNG per year.