Bangladesh, Qatar May Extend Tenure of LNG Deal

Bangladesh’s Energy Ministry has initiated a move to extend the tenure of a deal with Qatar to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the country was unable to create import facilities during the two year period since the deal was inked, Financial Express Bangladesh reported citing United News of Bangladesh.

The two countries signed the deal in January 2011 under which Bangladesh was to import 500 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) of gas.

Deal's effectiveness was set until March 2013 as the government had a plan to start the import of the liquefied gas from first half of the year after developing necessary infrastructures, Financial Express said.

A lot of follow up action was to be taken by Bangladesh which it was unable to do, official sources said. The actions include creating LNG import facilities, technical discussion, fixing prices and signing of final contract for the import of the liquefied gas.