Bangladesh buys two LNG shipments for Tk 13.55bn

The average cost is less than Tk 7 billion, down significantly from the Tk 8 billion per shipment level it had hit at the height of the Iran war

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The government is importing two liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes from the international spot market to shore up energy supplies amid disruptions linked to the conflict between the United States and Iran.

It will spend Tk 13.55 billion on these shipments imported through international quotations, which is slightly less than the average cost imported LNG shipments bought in the past two months.

As tensions in West Asia deepened, fuel prices spiked, with the average price of an LNG shipment hitting around Tk 8 billion.

The average cost per shipment in the latest purchase on Wednesday is less than Tk 7 billion.

The proposal won “partial” approval at the 28th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase at the Secretariat on Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance said.

Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury presided over the meeting.

According to the approved proposal, Aramco Trading Singapore and Gunvor Singapore will supply the two shipments separately.

On Jun 17, at the previous committee meeting, the government approved the import of three LNG shipments through the same process.

At that time, it was decided that Singapore-based Vital Asia and Aramco Trading Singapore would supply two shipments and UK-based Total Energies Gas and Power Limited would supply one shipment.

The total cost to the government was estimated at Tk 21.12 billion, with the average price of each shipment at above Tk 7 billion.

Prices were even steeper earlier this month and last month.

The government purchase committee on Jun 3 cleared the import of three LNG shipments at a cost of Tk 23.72 billion.

The committee on Wednesday also decided to purchase 20 million litres of refined palm oil and refined soybean oil to meet the country's edible oil demand.

In addition, approval was given to import 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertiliser, 25,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea fertiliser, 25,000 tonnes of bulk pre-filled urea fertiliser, import 12,500 tonnes of lentils and procure 10,000 tonnes of lentils locally.

The committee also gave the green light for importing of 30,000 tonnes of TSP fertiliser from Morocco under a government-to-government agreement.

It was also decided to appoint an international consulting firm for a pilot project to harvest tuna and similar fish that live further from the coast.