Published : 14 Aug 2026, 07:56 PM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:32 AM
Gas supply to the national grid from Summit's floating LNG terminal in Cox's Bazar's Moheshkhali remains suspended after an LNG-carrying vessel “could not berth”.
The state-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) official told bdnews24.com on Friday that a fresh cargo is due to berth at Summit's terminal between 7pm and 7:20pm.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG), transported by sea, is received and stored at floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), where it is converted back into gas and sent to the national grid via pipeline.
Following this process, the RPGCL official believes gas supply to the national grid may resume from late Friday night.
"We're hoping send-out from Summit will begin around 2am," he said.
Supply from Summit's terminal has remained suspended since after 3pm on Wednesday.
The RPGCL official said the terminal became empty because the previously arrived cargo could not berth. An initiative was then taken to bring in a new cargo.
Meanwhile, around 300 million cubic feet of gas per day is being fed into the national grid from Bangladesh’s other floating terminal, run by Excelerate.
Moheshkhali hosts two floating LNG terminals, one operated by Excelerate Energy and the other by Summit LNG, with daily regasification capacities of 600mmcf and 500mmcf respectively.
Supply from the Excelerate Energy terminal was disrupted after a technical fault emerged on Jul 21, before being partially restored in the early hours of Aug 5.
With Summit's terminal also going offline on Wednesday after its cargo failed to berth, the country's gas shortage has intensified.
At present, around 300mmcf of gas per day is being supplied to the national grid from the other floating LNG terminal in Moheshkhali, known as the MLNG terminal, he said.
Once Summit’s terminal resumes operations, gas pressure at power plants, industrial units, CNG stations and households may improve to some extent.
A Petrobangla director told bdnews24.com that there had been objections over the suitability and safety of the LNG carrier Al Hamra for unloading at Summit’s terminal.
He said the cargo could not berth because of those objections raised by parties associated with the terminal.
International shipping data show that Al Hamra is a Moss-type LNG carrier built in 1997. Such vessels store LNG in spherical tanks. The ship has a capacity of around 135,000 cubic metres.
Attempts to contact officials of US-based Excelerate Energy, which is related to Summit LNG and terminal operations, for comment were unsuccessful.
Summit’s terminal is located about 6km off the Moheshkhali coast.
The floating terminal receives LNG from an LNG carrier offshore, converts it into gas and sends it through an undersea pipeline to the national grid.
According to Excelerate, the terminal began operations in 2019 and has a daily gas supply capacity of 500mmcf.
LNG has previously been transferred to Summit’s terminal from larger vessels.
In 2020, LNG was commercially transferred there from a Q-Flex-class vessel with a capacity of around 210,000 cubic metres. In March 2022, the terminal completed its 100th ship-to-ship LNG transfer.
No party linked to the terminal has disclosed the technical grounds for the objections to the Al Hamra cargo.
Bangladesh's daily gas demand stands at around 3,800mmcf.
Under normal circumstances, combined domestic production and imported LNG supply around 2,700mmcf a day, comprising roughly 1,600 to 1,650mmcf from domestic fields and about 1,000 to 1,100mmcf from imported LNG.
Gas shortages reduce power generation and disrupt industrial production. They also put pressure on the supply of CNG used by gas-powered vehicles.
At a discussion organised by the private research organisation Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Thursday, data presented by the organisation showed that imported LNG accounted for around 29 percent of the country’s total gas consumption in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Before the conflict began in West Asia, Bangladesh had received 19 LNG cargoes from Qatar under a long-term agreement.
According to the presentation, no further cargo had arrived under that agreement since the conflict began.
To meet the shortfall, Petrobangla has had to purchase 35 cargoes from the spot market.
Citing Petrobangla data from Aug 11, the CPD said six gas-supply companies were able to provide only 29 percent of the demand of power plants. Fertiliser factories received 38 percent of their demand.
The power sector is the largest consumer of gas in Bangladesh, followed by industries, captive power-generating industries and the residential sector.
As a result, any reduction in LNG supply puts simultaneous pressure on electricity generation, industrial production, CNG supplies and household cooking gas.
