Another LNG FSRU Ship Moors off Bangladesh

Bangladesh's second liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and regasification vessel has moored off the country's coast, the ship's operator said on the weekend, gearing up to help supply the nation with the super-chilled fuel.

The floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) 'Summit LNG' is moored 6 km off the island of Moheshkhali in Cox's Bazar, Singapore-based Summit Power International said in a statement issued on Saturday.

Summit, owned by Bangladeshi conglomerate Summit Group, said it had chartered the vessel, which is able to regasify 500 million cubic feet of LNG a day, from U.S.-based Excelerate Energy for 15 years.

It said the ship had picked up a commissioning cargo in Qatar before sailing to Bangladesh, where it is expected to remain, sending regasified LNG into the country through a subsea pipeline.

About 3.75 million tonnes a year of LNG are expected to be imported through the facility, doubling the country's LNG import capacity to 7.5 million tonnes per year once fully operational.

Summit did not say when it would start up.

Bangladesh has scrapped plans to build additional floating LNG terminals in favour of land-based stations after the start-up of the country's first FSRU was delayed by several months due to technical problems and bad weather.

Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan