Govt to own 30pc stake of LPG business at Matarbari

The government is going to establish its ownership over the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) business by installing a public-private partnership company at Matarbari under Cox's Bazaar district.
As per the plan, the government will hold 30 percent, Marubeni, the world's leading LPG trader, 40 percent and Vitol &PowerCo, a joint venture of local companies, 30 percent stake of the business.
"We have been facing the challenge since December 2020 as the LPG retailers do not have their own large LPG terminals by themselves in Bangladesh leading to high transportation cost," State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral resources Nasrul Hamid told the Daily observer.
Following the widespread criticism against the coal fired power plant due to its dirty emission of gas, the government is preparing the environment for LPG market here but the main challenge is the volatile LPG market.
"LPG consumption has increased almost 8 times in the last 4 years which indicates an explosive growth in next 10 years.  It has been estimated that there will be about 2 million metric tonnes of LPG demand in 2025," the State Minister said.  
To address the issue, we have a plan to install Matarbari LPG Terminal under BPC's supervision. It will be treated as mother terminal and it will supply LPG to the retailers ensuring end-customers to have access to cheaper LPG, he said.
According to the Energy Division, amid the gloomy scenario of domestic gas production and protest against the coal use in the country, the government has taken up a decision to import larger volume of LPG from international market.
"To support this vision, we recognize the necessity of fully scaled LPG terminal which enables the country to import LPG by VLGC (Very Large Gas Carrier) and would be the railhead of the LPG value chain," Energy Division official said.
For meeting the    future demand for energy, Energy Division started talks with Marubeni. Marubeni Consortium will prioritize to establish and operate the terminal to reduce the LPG import cost by USD 30-40 per tonnes, the official said.
The JV will concentrate on LPG procurement, terminal operation and necessary inland transportation and supply LPG to the country's LPG retailers, he added.
According to the Marubeni proposal, the handling capacity of the terminal will be 1,000,000 tonnes per annum and it will complete the task within next three years after the feasibility study is done.
"Marubini agreed to complete the task with a cost of USD305m on BOOT (Built-Own-Operate-Transfer) basis. Japanese leading financial institutions such as JBIC, JICA, Japanese mega banks including MUFG, Mizuho, SMBC and ADB,IFC will mobilize the fund," the official said.