The government will not buy LNG from the spot market for the time being due to the price increase. Sources said the decision was taken as part of cost-effectiveness policy in the context of rising global fuel prices. This matter was discussed in a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister's office last Thursday. When asked to know, a senior official who participated in the meeting told Samakal that if markets and shopping malls are closed after evening, the demand for electricity and gas consumption will decrease. Therefore, the government thinks that the situation can be handled even if it does not buy LNG from the spot.
Now, an average of 800 million cubic feet of gas is being obtained daily from imported LNG. Much of this comes from Qatar and Oman under long-term contracts. 150 million cubic feet of LNG per day from LNG purchased from the spot market. But the cost is high in this sector. It costs Petrobangla $11 to $13 per million British thermal units (MMBTU) to buy LNG from Oman and Qatar. The government last bought $26.4 per MMBTU in the spot market in May. At that time, a cargo of LNG equivalent to 33 lakh 60 thousand MMBTU was purchased from Vital Energy of Singapore for Tk 909 crore 14 lakh 50 thousand.
Last April, the price per unit purchased from the spot market was 29.25 dollars. In March, the price per unit was 36.7 dollars. According to this, the price of 33 lakh 60 thousand MMBTU fell to 991 crore 77 lakh taka in April. In the month of March, the same amount of gas had to be bought for about 1 thousand 241 crores 49 lakhs. But since last week the price of spot LNG has increased again in the international market. On Thursday, the spot market in Asia sold over $38 per mmbtu of LNG.
Petrobangla has sought Tk 44,000 crore from the government for the current year as support for LNG alone. In the budget of the next financial year, the government has allocated 17 thousand crores for LNG and incentives. Gas prices have been increased by 23 per cent at the customer level from this month due to the additional cost of LNG.
