The nation’s two LNG terminals, the Summit Group’s Floating Storage and Regasification Unit, have resumed operations, but the total gas supply has not improved. Instead, it saw a further decline as a result of the Bibiyana Gas field’s maintenance project beginning.
One of the nation’s key sources of gas supply, the Bibiyana Gas field, went into normal maintenance on 13th April and will resume full production on 16th April.
Representatives from Chevron, the company that operates the Bibiyana Gas field, and the state-owned Petrobangla expressed optimism about receiving a complete supply starting Tuesday.
Official sources said the Summit Group finally became successful in commissioning its LNG terminal and resumed re-gasification of imported LNG on 12th April.
The official data of state-owned Petrobangla shows that the supply of imported gas has increased by 162 million cubic feet (MMCFD) to 792 MMCFD from 630 MMCFD following the commissioning of the Summit Group’s LNG terminal.
“The gas supply has further increased to 936.30 MMCFD on April 14,” a senior official of the Petrobangla told local media.
The country has two LNG terminals, set up by the private sector, in Maheshkhali having a total regasification capacity of 1100 MMCFD. One is owned and operated by US-based Excelerate Energy having 600 MMCFD capacity while another one is owned and operated by Summit Group having 500 MMCFD.
The gas supply situation declined when the Summit Group’s LNG Terminal entered a regular maintenance schedule during the first week of March. On 3rd March, it was supposed to go back online and start producing again.
“But initially it failed to come back to production as per schedule and finally it resumed production a few days later,” the Petrobangla official said.
Official data shows that the country’s gas supply was 2,345 MMCFD on Sunday and Monday against low demand of 3,632 MMCFD at the tail end of the Eid vacation.
Meanwhile, official data indicates that the nation had to endure more than 300 MW of load shedding on Monday during the busiest time of the day, even though there was little demand for electricity.
According to PGCB data, at 10 am, the nation saw load shedding of 305 MW, despite a demand of 11,400 MW.
On Monday, the officials predicted that the evening peak demand would be 14,000 MW, and they anticipate additional load-shedding this evening.
