STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Petrobangla is set to purchase three more cargoes of liquefied natural gas this month as the government looks to ramp up gas imports taking advantage of the favourable prices in the global spot market.

The cabinet committee on government purchase yesterday approved the procurement of the three cargoes at the unit prices of $9.68, $9.89 and $9.50 respectively. The total cost would be about Tk 418 crore, Tk 428 crore and Tk 410 crore respectively.

The LNG cargoes, having 33.60 lakh MMBtu each, will be supplied by Singapore’s Vitol Asia, Switzerland’s TotalEnergies Gas and Power and Gunvor Singapore.

With the three cargoes, the government has approved a total of 15 LNG cargoes from the spot market this year.

Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker recently told Reuters that they have plans to purchase 48 cargoes of LNG this year other than the long-term contracts, up from 23 cargoes last year.