Nigeria is supplying its first liquefied natural gas cargo to Bangladesh, a South Asian country of 164.70 million people through the Oman Trading International, three months earlier than scheduled.
The long-term contract with state-owned Petrobangla was originally due to start May 2019, a senior official with the importer said Monday. Oman Trading International’s contractual deliveries for 1 million metric tons/year of LNG will span over 10 years.
The Cape Ann LNG carrier, loaded with 136,000 cubic metre of Nigerian LNG, was expected to reach Bangladesh’s floating LNG terminal at Moheshkhali Island January 30, according to S&P Global trade flow software cFlow.
The new volumes are set to boost utilisation rates at Excelerate Energy’s floating LNG terminal, which have remained at around 60 percent, as domestic pipeline delays have resulted in fewer deliveries from Petrobangla’s long-term contract with QatarGas.
The SPA with OTI was priced at 11.90 percent of the three-month average of Brent crude oil prices plus 40 cents/MMBtu. Under the contract, both parties may agree to increase LNG imports to 1.5 million mt/year, or lower them to 900,000 mt/year.
This follows Bangladesh’s decision, last week to scrap a non-binding LNG supply agreement with Swiss trader AOT Energy for the delivery of 1.25 million mt/year over 15 years, on domestic infrastructure delays and the country’s goal to secure a larger share of LNG from the spot markets.
The decision has turned the spotlight on other non-binding supply agreements Bangladesh has signed with other suppliers, including one with Indonesia’s Pertamina to import 1 million mt/year of LNG over 10 years.
