Two LNG terminals operational from morning, gas supply increases

The country's gas crisis has eased somewhat following increased supply from floating terminals. Gas supply to the national grid increased from Saturday morning as the Summit LNG terminal resumed full operation and the Accelerate Energy terminal partially came online.

According to officials involved in LNG supply, the Summit terminal began supplying 460 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) from 4am on Saturday, while the Accelerate Energy terminal supplied 300 mmcfd.

Petrobangla Chairman Md Abdur Mannan confirmed that both terminals are currently supplying gas, expressing hope that consumers would get some relief from the increased supply.

There are two floating terminals in Maheshkhali, Cox's Bazar, for injecting imported LNG into the national grid. Of these, the US-based Accelerate Energy terminal has a daily capacity of 600 mmcfd, while the Bangladeshi Summit terminal has a capacity of 500 mmcfd.

According to Petrobangla sources, Accelerate's terminal has two boilers, each with a capacity of 300 mmcfd. One boiler was damaged in a fire, so the other was used to supply gas from August 6. Due to technical issues, the terminal was completely shut down at 4pm on Friday. After repairs, the undamaged boiler resumed supply.

Meanwhile, supply from Summit terminal had also been reduced from Monday due to the LNG crisis. Supply fell to 200 mmcfd on Tuesday, then to 100 mmcfd from Wednesday to Thursday afternoon, before stopping completely at 5pm on Thursday. Later, when an LNG carrier from the company 'Vitol' arrived in the Bay of Bengal on Friday afternoon, the process of unloading LNG at the Summit terminal began from 7pm. Prior to this, the company had begun supplying 95 mmcfd from 6pm using stored reserves at the terminal, which increased to 460 mmcfd by the early morning.

The country's daily gas demand is currently about 3,800 mmcfd. Normally, supply of about 3,000 mmcfd is enough to maintain normal gas supply to all sectors. However, even during normal times, about 2,700 mmcfd is supplied through rationing, with about 1,050 mmcfd coming from LNG.

When the Accelerate terminal was suddenly shut down on Friday afternoon, total gas supply in the country dropped to just 1,730 mmcfd. With both terminals operational again, supply has increased to around 2,400 mmcfd.