Govt extends application submission deadline

The government has extended the application submission deadline for interested liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers from the spot market by one week, until September 22.

State-run Petrobangla floated the invitation for enlistment notice on August 29 with initial bid submission deadline on September 15.

“We have extended the deadline after having requests from some potential global LNG suppliers,” a senior Petrobangla official told the media on Saturday.

Petrobangla has decided to expand its pool of approved international LNG suppliers as the country is increasingly relying on the volatile spot market to overcome a worsening gas crisis and disruptions caused to contractual supplies.

The initiative is aimed at attracting more bidders and lowering procurement costs, as only a handful of the 32 currently listed suppliers regularly participate in spot LNG tenders.

Bid participation could increase and the cost of purchasing LNG from the spot market could decline if Bangladesh expands the number of listed suppliers, sources said.

The spot market is a public financial market in which financial instruments or commodities are traded for immediate delivery.

The LNG spot market has developed over the past several years amid growth in LNG production capacity and the expansion of emerging markets for the fuel.

Petrobangla has recently increased LNG imports from the volatile spot market to overcome the country’s mounting gas crisis.

Sources said the government has been struggling to arrange LNG cargoes because of the notable decline in contractual supplies resulting from the Middle East war and supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.

The non-delivery of several scheduled LNG cargoes awarded under the direct purchase method (DPM) also contributed to an abrupt shortage of LNG for regasification, prompting the government to purchase spot LNG cargoes within a very short period in late August to meet urgent demand.