Reliance Expects Financial Close on Dhaka CCGT by March
India's Reliance Power is expected to achieve financial closure on its 750 MW combined cycle gas-fired (CCGT) power project in Bangladesh by end-March 2018, chairman and its main shareholder Anil Ambani said September 26 during the company’s annual general meeting in Mumbai.
Reliance Power executed an agreement this April with Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for the first phase of the power project at Meghnaghat, near the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, which includes the power purchase agreement and implementation agreements.
Phase one will have an investment outlay of $1bn financed under consideration of Asian Development Bank and a consortium of lenders. The power project will run primarily on regasified LNG imports. A memo of understanding was also signed in April with state-owned Petrobangla to set up 500mn ft3/d (5.17bn m3/yr) LNG terminal at Kutubdia Island near Chittagong, which was also approved by Bangladesh authorities.
With global LNG prices ruling low, Bangladesh has moved to increase the share of the commodity in the energy mix as demand for energy expands. Petrobangla inked September 25 the country’s first-ever sales and purchase agreement with Qatar's RasGas to buy 2.5mn mt/year of lean LNG for 15 years, a senior official at the energy and mineral resources division under the energy ministry told NGW.
Shardul Sharma