Qatar has agreed to supply 500 million cubic feet (MMCF) of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Bangladesh.

This assurance came from the Gulf country during a meeting with a Bangladesh delegation led by Energy Secretary Mohammad Masbahuddin that returned home yesterday after a four-day visit to Qatar.

“We had a successful discussion with top officials of the Qatar's state-owned petroleum agency. They showed a positive indication to supply about 500mmcf liquefied gas to meet our deficit,” said a member of the delegation.

Bangladesh has been experiencing nagging gas crisis that hit hard the country's industry and other business and also power generation. The present production is now estimated at l,900mmcf against the demand of more than 2,400mmcf. To meet the daily deficit of 500mmcf, the government moved to import LNG on suitable terms of price and transportation.

As part of the move, the seven-member delegation of the energy ministry left for Doha, the capital of Qatar, last week to explore import of LNG.

Annual import requirement of LNG is estimated at 182.500 billion cubic feet to meet the deficit of 500mmcf per day, said a Petrobangla official.

To facilitate the import of LNG in bulk, Bangladesh also needs to build up huge infra-

structure including LNG terminal in the Bay with a floating storage and regasification unit as well.

The government wants the infrastructure either to be developed in private sector or under the public private partnership. It was estimated that an investment of $600 million to $1 billion will be required to build a floating LNG terminal where a CNG-carrying vessel with the carrying capacity of 3 billion cubic feet LNG can unload.

To transport the gas from the terminal to the onshore, the project will require setting up a 100km 30-inch gas pipeline at a cost of $100 million. The state-owned Gas Transmission Company of Bangladesh has already initiated a move to build the gas pipeline.

Under the plan, a private firm could set up the terminal on build-own-operate basis and the government would be charged a fee against the use of the terminal. After meeting all expenses, per unit (1,000 cubic feet) gas will cost $8-12 while the country's present gas production cost is below $3.