Emirates' National Oil Company (ENOC), AOT Energy AG of Switzerland, US's Excelerate Energy, and local Summit Group are now lobbying with the government high-ups to bag long-term LNG supply deals with the country.
Among the firms, ENOC is eyeing to ink deal under government to government (G2G) negotiation, as it is the state-owned oil company of the United Arab Emirates, a senior energy ministry official told the FE on Tuesday.
Three other firms are private ones, and are also keen to ink deals with the government on unsolicited offers under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act 2010. The law has a provision of providing immunity to those involved with a quick-fix solution.
All of these firms proposed separately to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources to get award of contracts to supply LNG under long-term deal.
They have come up to close down deals, seeing the growing demand of LNG in the country and consistent purchase of LNG from both long-term suppliers and spot market.
Currently, the country is importing LNG under long-term deals from two state-run global suppliers - Qatar's Qatargas and Oman's Oman Trading International (OTI).
Petrobangla inked LNG sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) with them following G2G negotiation.
Petrobangla started regular import of LNG from September 9, 2018.
The entity inked the country's first-ever sales and purchase agreement with Qatar's RasGas on September 25 last year to buy annually around 2.5 million tonnes per year (Mtpa) of lean LNG over 15 years.
During the initial five years of the deal, QatarGas will supply annually around 1.8 Mtpa of LNG, which will be increased up to 2.5 Mtpa in next 10 years.
The purchase price has been set at around 12.65 per cent of the three-month average price of Brent crude oil plus US$ 0.50 constant per MMBtu (million British thermal unit).
If Petrobangla has more demand during the first five years, it can increase the LNG import volume annually to 2.5 Mtpa, and during the next 10 years Petrobangla has the option to reduce the amount by 10 per cent every year.
If Bangladesh takes less than the base amount of LNG, in any year, it will have to pay the price on a take-or-pay basis.
Petrobangla has a similar SPA with Oman's OTI to import annually around 1.0 Mtpa of LNG for 15 years.
It is purchasing LNG at around 11.9 per cent of the three-month average of Brent crude oil prices plus $ 0.40 cents per mmBtu from OTI, and the payments are to make within 25 days of delivery.
Petrobangla has the option of increasing LNG import to 1.5 Mtpa or lowering it to 0.9 Mtpa without having to pay any penalty.
Currently, the agency is importing around five to six LNG cargoes, having the quantity of around 138,000 cubic metres, every month.
Bangladesh is importing a total 64 LNG cargoes in 2021 from term suppliers, two cargoes or 3.0 percent shorter from the previous year.
The state entity will import 40 cargoes from Qatargas, and 24 from OTI in 2021. It imported 43 cargoes from Qatargas in 2019 and 40 in 2020, while 20 cargoes from OTI in 2019 and 26 in 2020.
It is importing 18 LNG cargoes from spot market in 2021 against only one cargo in 2020, said officials.
Azizjst@yahoo.com