Gas shortage feared as LNG re-gasifying unit to remain shut for over 1 month

A Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRUs) will remain shut for one-and-a-half months as its mooring cable was recently damaged.

The Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) re-gasifying facility can re-gasify and supply 500mmcf (one million cubic feet) gas per day to the national gas grid.

The supply disruption could badly hit areas like power, textiles, fertilizers and compressed natural gas, which are already facing low supply.

Energy Division officials, however, said shutting off a single unit would not be a major issue as the demand for power had decreased in the winter.

"We will try to keep the supply smooth with the maximum use of the remaining units of FSRUs. We hope the gap between supply and demand won't be a big issue as demand has dropped due to it being the winter season," said Engineer Ali Md Al-Mamun, director (Operation & Mines), at Petrobangla.

The mooring line of the FSRU in question was ruptured. Due to this, it will not be able to supply LNG till January 15 as Ship-to-Ship Transfer Operation has become impossible, reads a press release of the Ministry of Power Energy and Mineral Resources.

Sources at the Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited, which deals with LNG import and supply, said the mooring cable of Summit FSRU was damaged on November 18.

Due to this, LNG-carrying cargo was failing to anchor at the terminal.

Since then, the LNG stored earlier in the FSRU was being supplied.

As of November 29, the country has been getting only 581mmcf LNG from its two FSRUs.

At present, the country has a demand of 4,250mmcf gas per day, whereas supply is only 2,978mmcf.

Due to this shortage, the government has to rely on furnace and diesel oil to generate 29% of the electricity out of a daily demand of 9,173MW.