Matarbari LNG Terminal

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Matarbari LNG Terminal is an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal proposed in Matarbari, in the Cox's Bazar district of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Location

The terminal is proposed to be located in Matarbari, Maheshkhali Upazila, Cox's Bazar District, Chittagong, Bangladesh.

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Project Details

• Operator:
• Owner:
  • formerly: Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company
• Parent company:
  • formerly: Petrobangla
• Location: Matarbari, Maheshkhali Upazila, Cox's Bazar District, Chittagong, Bangladesh
• Coordinates: 21.7271477, 91.8797371 (approximate)
• Capacity: 7.5 mtpa (1 bcfd)
• Status: Proposed
• Type: Import
• Start year: 2027-2028; 2030
  • formerly: 2023-2024
• Cost: $1 billion
• Financing: Associated port is being funded by JICA
• FID status:
• Associated infrastructure:

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

In January 2019, the Petrobangla subsidiary Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Co. requested interest from potential terminal developers for a land-based LNG regasification terminal at Matarbari in the Cox’s Bazar district of southern Bangladesh. In March 2019, the deadline for tendering bids for the project was extended by three months. As of June 2019, 12 companies have expressed interest in building the terminal. According to officials of Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Co., a committee is currently evaluating the proposals and will create a shortlist based on the capabilities and technical assessments of the 12 companies. They also said it could take more than a year to complete and award the contract for the terminal. In January 2020 the Bangladeshi Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury Chief announced that the deep sea port where the terminal will be located is being developed with financing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In January 2021, Tokyo Gas was awarded a contract to carry out a feasibility study for developing the facility.

In August 2021, Bangladesh's Energy and Mineral Resources Division developed a shortlist of eight firms that could be awarded the contract build the terminal.

As of 2023, there have been no updates in over two years, and the project was presumed shelved.

Project proposed again

In June 2023, it was reported that the Summit Group hopes to develop an LNG import terminal in Matarbari, with a proposed capacity of 7.5 mtpa. It appears that this project is still proposed. It was further reported that Summit has partnered with Japan’s Jera to compete in a government tender to build the onshore LNG receiving terminal in Matarbari that is anticipated to come online by 2030. The Summit-Jera partnership is one of seven shortlisted bidders. In April 2023, Summit signed a memorandum of understanding with Jera to collaborate on the development of LNG supply, storage and regasification.

In January 2024, S&P Global reported that Mitsubishi Corp was also partnering in the project together with Summit and Jera, and the three have been shortlisted along with seven other consortiums. Aziz Khan, Summit's chairman, also told Reuters that he was confident that the terminal's construction would be able to commence in 2025.

In February 2024, it was reported that Summit Group, together with JERA and Sumitomo, was working to win a tender for the $1 billion LNG terminal which the government was expected to award in due course to get the terminal in place by 2027, or early 2028.

In September 2024, Reuters reported that doubts over the project's location had arisen following the cyclone damage caused to Summit Group's neighboring [Summit FSRU] in June 2024 that resulted in the temporary closure of the floating terminal. "The government has been reconsidering the exact location of the Matarbari onshore terminal," commented Izumi Kai, JERA Asia's chief executive, "partially because of the FSRU that got damaged."