Seven international firms are vying for the job of advising Bangladesh on the technical, commercial and financial issues of liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases, terminal development and other relevant activities.
The government has short-listed these firms as they had submitted their respective Expressions of Interest (EoIs) in response to an invitation by state-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petrobangla, officials said.
The firms are: Muse, Stancil & Co. and Quality Energy Decisions Consulting Ltd. from the UK; DORIS Engineering SAS and Nouvelle Societie Francaise D'etudes et De Realisations D'equipents Gaziers from France; USA's joint venture of RINA Consulting SPA and GALWAY; joint venture of Japan's Tokyo Gas Engineering Solutions Corporation and Nippon Koel Co Ltd; and PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd., India.
Bangladesh is currently undergoing a natural gas crisis with dwindling natural gas reserves in the domestic gas fields, and trying to meet the growing demand by importing LNG.
However, state-run Petrobangla has ceased LNG imports from the volatile spot market since July, when the price of the fuel went above US$70 per metric million British thermal unit (mmBtu).
Under long-term contracts, Qatar's Qatargas and Oman's Oman Trading International (OTI) have been supplying LNG to an extent minimum under the annual delivery programme (ADP).
In April last year, Petrobangla had to impose gas rationing in industries for the first time, restricting industrial consumers from using natural gas for four hours daily from 5pm to 9pm, to cope with the short supply of natural gas.
A six-hour rationing for CNG filling stations from 5pm to 11pm is still in execution.
Country's two floating, storage, re-gasification units (FSRUs) are running at half of their capacities, re-gasifying around 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of LNG against their cumulative capacity of around 1,000 mmcfd.
Separately, the government is also working to build a 1,000 mmcfd capacity land-based LNG import terminal and the request for proposal has already been issued to eight previously short-listed global firms to select the contractor.
To carry out the government's future LNG activities smoothly, the selected consultancy firm will have to provide comprehensive and conclusive consultancy services for LNG procurement, LNG terminal development, and future LNG activities, said a senior Petrobangla official.
The firm will have to observe, investigate and recommend on LNG imports, LNG carrier scheduling, supply chain management, LNG terminal development and other ongoing and future LNG activities in Bangladesh.
The firm will undertake and coordinate preparation and finalisation of the annual delivery programme for cargoes from LNG sources into two FSRU terminals and other future terminals.
It will have to review performance of the FSRU terminals and review energy balance periodically and analyse the LNG market and recommend LNG procurement for long-term and spot markets.
The consulting firm will have to support Bangladesh in finalising LNG sales and purchase agreements, terminal use agreement, implementation agreement, and charter agreements for carriers.
It will have to provide support during construction of the terminal facilities, from signing of final agreement with the terminal developer to commissioning and acceptance of the terminal.
The consulting firm will have to comment, recommend and advise on project cost estimates with financial and economic analysis submitted by the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) developer, and the design, drawing and monthly progress report submitted by the BOOT developer.
It will also have to recommend the capacity-building procedure of the Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd.
Sources said the government earlier appointed Japanese consulting firm Tokyo Gas Co Ltd to carry out a feasibility study and prepared the request-for-proposal documents to help select the contractor for building the land-based LNG terminal.
Petrobangla also received Scotland's Wood Mackenzie report on sweetening Bangladesh's offshore model production sharing contract to make it lucrative for the international oil companies to carry out hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay.
This was the first time that Petrobangla appointed an international consultant to review the model production-sharing contract. Previously, Petrobangla would do it on its own by its manpower.
