Petrobangla has revised upward the country's natural gas demand projection by 8.39 per cent to 1.346 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in the current fiscal year (FY), 2018-19, riding on LNG import.
The previous projection of natural gas demand for FY 2019 was around 1.24 Tcf. Petrobangla unveiled the gas demand projection in its latest annual report, published last week, said a senior official of the state-run organisation.
According to Petrobangla, natural gas demand will be the highest to the tune of around 657 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in power sector.
It will be followed by industry sector 253 Bcf, captive power plants 152 Bcf, household 133 Bcf, fertiliser 98 Bcf, CNG filling stations 41 Bcf, commercial sector 9.0 Bcf, and tea estate sector 2.0 Bcf.
The country consumed around 970 Bcf of natural gas in FY 2018.
According to Petrobangla, Bangladesh's natural gas production was 971.6 Bcf in FY 2017, 973.2 Bcf in FY 2016, 892.2 Bcf in FY 2015, 820.4 Bcf in FY 2014, 800.6 Bcf in FY 2013, 743.7 Bcf in FY 2012, 708.9 Bcf in FY 2011, 703.6 Bcf in FY 2010, and 653.8 Bcf in FY 2009.
The country's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility - Excellence, a floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) of Excelerate Energy - started commercial operations in August. The second FSRU, owned by Summit Group, is expected to come online by April 2019.
Bangladesh received its first LNG supply in September under a 15-year contract with Qatar's RasGas. The contract, for supplying 2.5 million tonne per year (Mtpa) of LNG, was priced at 12.5 per cent of the three-month average of Brent crude plus a 0.5 per cent constant.
The country is expecting to start importing LNG under its second long-term LNG sales and purchase contract with Oman Trading International from May 2019. The agreement was signed in May 2018 for supplying 1.0 Mtpa over 10 years.
Bangladesh has also been working to ramp up natural gas production from its domestic gas-fields to meet the mounting natural gas demand.
"We are carrying out a number of drilling programmes in different onshore fields to increase overall natural gas output," said Managing Director of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) A K M Ruhul Islam Chowdhury.
He said Bapex, the country's lone state-run oil and gas exploration company, is also engaging international oil companies (IOCs) to drill wells and increase natural gas production under contract basis.
As of October 29, 2018, Bapex is producing around 115 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas from 14 of its gas-fields against their total capacity of 145 mmcfd, according to Petrobangla.
The state-run Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL) has initiated projects to install wellhead compressor stations in different wells to ramp up output, said a senior BGFCL official.
As of October 29, Bangladesh's overall natural gas supply is hovering around 3.03 Bcf per day.
Of the total gas supply, the IOCs are supplying around 1.65 Bcf of gas, which is 50.7 per cent of the supply.
Besides, the local gas producing companies are supplying 1.05 Bcf of gas, which is 32.3 per cent, and the remaining 327 mmcfd is being supplied as re-gasified LNG, Petrobangla statistics reveals.
According to Hydrocarbon Unit, an entity under Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Bangladesh has recoverable domestic gas reserve of around 12.88 Tcf, as of April 2018.
The country has so far consumed around 15.80 Tcf of local gas until April 2018.
