Bangladesh has requested Qatar again to reconsider a downward adjustment of LNG, or liquefied natural gas, import price from the Qatargas against the backdrop of global coronavirus pandemic.
State Minister for the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid made the request during a virtual meeting with Qatar’s State Minister for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi on Monday.
Mr Hamid had placed a similar request to Mr Kaabi to reconsider the LNG import price from Qatar in October last year when Mr Kaabi had reportedly assured of reconsidering the LNG price during the extension of the existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries.
But till date Bangladesh is yet to get any positive response from the Middle Eastern LNG giant.
Last year’s appeal for lowering LNG price was made in a meeting when an eight-member Qatari delegation headed by Mr Kaabi came to the secretariat.
It is also not clear whether Qatar will respond positively this time to Bangladesh’s call for lowering the LNG price considering the global spread of coronavirus and subsequent fall of oil and natural gas price including that of LNG
Currently state-run Petrobangla has been importing lean LNG from Qatargas at around US$6.0 per mmBtu (million British thermal unit).
But it imported lean LNG from spot market a couple of week back at $3.83 per mmBtu.
During the online meeting Monday the Qatari minister was reportedly keen for more bilateral businesses in different areas including that of LNG.
A joint venture of Qatar Petroleum LNG Services and US’s ExxonMobil is among 11 other global bidders that are interested to build a proposed 1,000 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) capacity land based LNG import terminal at Matarbari in Cox’s Bazar.
The energy ministry not yet short-listed the bidders for building the land-based LNG import terminal.
Qatar has also interest to investment in the country’s LNG-based power sector, said sources.
Currently Petrobangla has been importing LNG from Qatar under a deal to purchase around 2.5 million tonnes per year, or Mtpa, of lean LNG for over 15 years from Qatar’s RasGas, which merged with Qatargas in 2018.
During the initial five years of the deal, Qatargas will annually supply around 1.8 million tonnes of LNG, which will increase up to 2.5 Mtpa in the 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 $0.50 constant per mmBtu.
If Petrobangla will have 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, as per the deal.
Several countries around the globe including India and Pakistan, however, lowered down LNG import costs from Qatar in 2015 following renegotiations.
Azizjst@yahoo.com