Bangladesh is to restart the purchase of LNG from the spot market.
The country's newly formed interim government has decided to import LNG after a two-month hiatus, a senior Petrobangla official told S&P Global Commodity Insights this week.
Bangladesh’s government's Committee on Economic Affairs approved a proposal of the energy and mineral resources division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources to import LNG from a previously short listed 23 companies.
The interim government will follow the Public Procurement Rules 2008 (PPR 2008) to ensure competitiveness of the bidding process instead of the previous regime's Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provision) Act 2010 (Amended 2021), also known as the Speedy Act, the official said.
PPR 2008 allows bids to be invited from a group of suppliers, previously identified through a screening process, to purchase LNG from spot market, but no negotiations will be entertained once the new rule is applied, the official said.
Previously, state-owned Rupantarita Prakritik Gas would occasionally negotiate with the lowest bidders if the spot LNG prices were deemed to be too high by the evaluation committee, he added.
However, the offline Summit LNG terminal is claimed to be a major roadblock to the resumption of spot LNG imports, and the company has not yet submitted a date for resuming operations at its 3.75 mill tonne per year FSRU, the official added.
Bangladesh had ceased issuing tenders for spot LNG from the first week of July, and Summit FSRU was taken offline on 30th May, following an accident during Cyclone ‘Remal’.
