Bangladesh’s gas shortage has eased following supply of LNG from two floating LNG terminals in Cox’s Bazar in the southwest of the country, local media Dhaka Tribune reported on August 23.

The two FLNGs were providing a total of 740 mn cubic feet (21mn cubic metres) per day of gas to the national grid on August 22. Government officials have indicated that the supply of LNG will be increased gradually in phases to the national grid.

A cargo arrived from a US supplier and began unloading at Excelerate Energy’s FLNG, which is moored in Maheshkhali. The facility had been offline for the three prior days.

Prior to that, the floating storage and regasification unit was shut down after a fire on July 21. The facility was cleared on August 15 to restart LNG supply to the grid, however the arrival of the LNG cargo was delayed. Consequently the terminal restarted using limited supply from its existing stock.

Meanwhile, the Summit LNG terminal was supplying 500 mn cubic feet (14.2 mn cubic metres) per day, providing major relief as the country’s grapples with an ongoing gas shortage.

During the shutdown of Excelerate Energy’s FLNG, the Summit LNG terminal had been supply additional gas beyond its normal capacity to help meet national demand and reduce the need for load shedding. However, the Summit LNG terminal was forced to suspend supply of LNG to the grid temporarily after it was depleted of super-chilled fuel.

Facing a shortfall of several hundred megawatts during peak hours, Dhaka was forced to bring in load shedding in several regions of the country. Stores, markets, and shopping malls were also forced to close an hour earlier.

Combatting a decline in domestic gas production, Bangladesh has become increasingly reliant on imported LNG and has consequently been heavily impacted by the Middle East crisis that has disrupted global LNG supply and caused prices on the spot market to soar.