Bangladesh’s damaged floating LNG terminal off Maheshkhali is nearing a restart after almost two weeks of disruption, with partial gas supply expected to resume on Tuesday (4 August) or, if delayed, on Wednesday (5 August).
The US-based Excelerate Energy-operated floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is undergoing final testing before returning to operation, officials of Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) said.
“The repair work is almost complete. We expect to resume gas supply from the terminal on Tuesday. If that is not possible for any reason, it will begin on Wednesday,” Engineer Mohammad Nasir Uddin, Deputy General Manager (LNG) of RPGCL, told The Times of Bangladesh.
The terminal will initially supply 250–300 million cubic feet (MMcf) of regasified LNG per day before gradually returning to its full capacity of 500 MMcf daily within two to four days, he said.
A team of foreign engineers and technical specialists is overseeing the final testing phase to identify and resolve any remaining technical issues before commercial operations resume.
The restart is expected to ease pressure on the national gas network, which has faced severe shortages since the terminal shut down on 21 July following an accident during an LNG transfer operation.
According to Petrobangla and RPGCL, the incident occurred while the FSRU was receiving an LNG cargo from a tanker during a ship-to-ship transfer operation.
The shutdown marked the first major disruption of one of Bangladesh’s two offshore LNG import facilities since the country began operating floating LNG terminals in 2018.
The outage sharply reduced gas availability nationwide, cutting supply to the national grid by around 50 per cent. The shortage disrupted electricity generation, industrial production, CNG distribution and household gas services. Export-oriented factories struggled to maintain output, while many households faced severe shortages of piped gas.
At present, the second floating LNG terminal operated by Summit Group remains operational, supplying around 500 MMcf of gas daily to the national grid. Under normal conditions, the two offshore terminals together provide around 1,000 MMcf of regasified LNG per day, accounting for nearly half of Bangladesh’s LNG-based gas supply.
Earlier, Engineer Mohammad Saifullah Kabir, Deputy General Manager (LNG) of RPGCL, said a team of experts from Singapore had been deployed to restore the damaged terminal. Critical replacement parts were flown into Dhaka and transported to the site to speed up the repair process.
He said some essential components were already available in RPGCL’s inventory, allowing repairs to continue without interruption. Five to seven foreign specialists from different countries, currently based in Singapore, have been involved in the restoration work.
RPGCL, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, is responsible for importing LNG, converting it into natural gas and supplying it to the national grid.
The two floating LNG terminals anchored off Maheshkhali have a combined regasification capacity of around 1,100 MMcf per day. Imported LNG has become a critical part of Bangladesh’s energy mix, supporting electricity generation, industrial production and household consumption.
Chattogram gas supply falls further
The gas shortage has worsened in Chattogram, where daily supply has fallen to around 194 MMcf due to reduced availability from the national gas grid.
Engineer Md Rafiq Khan, Deputy General Manager (Distribution-North) of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited (KGDCL), said Chattogram currently requires 250–270 MMcf of gas per day under the rationing system but is receiving only 194 MMcf.
Before rationing was introduced, the region’s actual daily gas demand exceeded 350 MMcf, he said.
To manage the shortage, gas supply had already been restricted to power plants and fertiliser factories, allowing only one of Chattogram’s two power plants and one of its two fertiliser factories to operate at a time. However, the further decline in supply has made it increasingly difficult to maintain even that arrangement.
“The reduced gas supply is directly impacting households, CNG filling stations and the industrial sector,” Rafiq Khan said.
He said gas supply could improve slightly around 5 August, though the timeline for full normalisation would depend on the national gas transmission system and the agencies responsible for gas production and transmission.
According to KGDCL, Chattogram’s daily gas demand ranges between 312 and 350 MMcf. Of the available supply, around 90–100 MMcf is allocated to two fertiliser factories, 40 MMcf to power generation and 19 MMcf to CNG filling stations. The remaining gas is distributed among residential, commercial and industrial consumers.
The prolonged shortage has affected a wide range of industries in the region, including steel, glass, cement, shipbreaking, corrugated iron and garment manufacturing sectors.
