“We’re planning to replace the existing pipelines which are very old,” he said while speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day South Asia LNG Forum 2019 conference at Sonargaon Hotel in the city.
Nasrul said the government has been working to ensure the adequate supply of natural gas at affordable costs.
He also said the government is planning to provide a pricing projection of natural gas over the next five to 10 years to help potential businesses to chalk out their future investment plan.
“This projection will necessarily help the investors adopt a long-term fiscal planning,” the junior minister said.
South Asia LNG Forum organised the conference to focus on the potentials of “utilisingnatural gas and LNG through infrastructure development and distribution” to meet the increasing demand for power.
Director General of Power Cell Mohammad Hossain presented a keynote paper on the Crucial Role of Natural Gas and LNG for Power in Bangladesh at the programme while officials from Petrobangla, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) spoke on the occasion.
Twenty-two institutions from 16 different countries are taking part in the conference.
Nasrul Hamid said the government now can meet the requirement of natural gas following the LNG import.
The overall natural gas supply will increase further by the year-end when the two operational FSRUs (floating, storage, re-gasification units) would be able to supply around 800-900 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of re-gasified LNG (RLNG), he said.
The government will build a new land-based LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal to meet the mounting requirement of natural gas, he said.
“Neighbouring India has also shown interest to supply LNG,” he said adding that the government expedited the works to explore onshore gas fields to augment natural gas supply from local gas fields.
New natural gas reserve has also been detected in Bhola, he said adding prospects are also there in Madaripur and Mymensigh.
To keep the natural gas price affordable, the government would continue blending the RLNG with locally produced gas, said Nasrul Hamid.
The government is now importing LNG from Qatar’s Ras Gas and Oman’s Oman Trading International (OTI).
Nasrul said LNG will also be outsourced from spot market to keep its prices reasonable.