Gas supply falls as Remal damages Summit FSRU

Time Digital Report: Gas supply has reduced across the country as one of the two Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRU) were damaged during Cyclone Remal.

At present, the supply of liquefied natural gas has reduced to less than 700 million cubic feet a day (mmcfd) compared to the normal supply of around 1,100 mmcfd.

Yesterday, Summit Group said in a statement that a stray broken floating pontoon hit Summit LNG Terminal Co. (Pvt) Ltd's FSRU in Cox's Bazar's Moheshkhali during the peak of Cyclone Remal on Monday.

"There was damage to the ballast water tank of the FSRU. As per the standard operational protocol, an expert surveyor is on the way to board the FSRU and assess the damage," the statement said.

It added they would share further details based on the surveyor's report of the situation.

"Summit is in close communications with Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL) and Petrobangla," the statement added.

However, the first brief of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources on Monday evening said that operational activities of the FSRU were normal after Cyclone Remal.

"There is no damage in those establishments. Still the gusty wind, rain and high waves have been ongoing. The supply of LNG had reduced earlier but has now improved to a normal level of 1,100 mmcfd by today," the statement issued on Monday read.

There was no mention of any untoward incident in later statements.

The FSRU only resumed operations in mid-April after undergoing maintenance in Singapore for two and a half months.

During the maintenance work, the country's industrial and domestic consumers were impacted by a huge gas crisis.

The crisis began in mid-January, when both FSRUs were disconnected from the grid due to technical glitches.

On January 20, the Excelerate FSRU resumed operations but the Summit-run FSRU was sent for maintenance.

After both FSRUs resumed operations in mid-April, the gas supply increased and the power sector also received the required gas, stabilising the power supply situation across the country during the summer.

However, rural areas have been victims of load-shedding every day.

On Monday, the power supply dropped below 4,000 megawatts after Cyclone Remal hit coastal areas.

More than half of the country's people faced power outages as electric poles, substations, and spans were affected.

The supply started increasing the following day and stood at 13,000MW yesterday, with around 500MW load-shedding.

Petrobangla data shows that they have reduced gas supply to the power sector to 900 mmcfd from more than 1,200 mmcfd for the past one and a half months.

Due to the sensitive and explosive nature of handling LNG and the national importance of FSRU in terms of gas supply to the national grid, Summit and the FSRU operator are taking all precautions to rectify the matter before resuming normal operations, the statement read.