Petrobangla inks loan deal with HSBC to pay LNG import bills

State-run Petrobangla inked a deal with Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, or HSBC, on Tuesday to ensure payment of bills for imported LNG, or liquefied natural gas, in due time.

The deal with the HSBC is titled 'Clean Import Loan, or CIL, in United States Dollar, or USD.'

Petrobangla Chairman A B M Abdul Fattah presided over the deal signing ceremony at Petrocentre, where chief executive officer, or CEO, of HSBC Md. Mahbubur Rahman was the chief guest.

Currently, Bangladesh has been importing lean LNG under long-term deals from Qatar's RasGas, which has recently merged with Qatargas and is renamed as Qatargas, and the Oman Trading International, or OTI, of Oman.

The country started regular imports of LNG on September 9, 2018.

Bangladesh will initiate importing LNG, or liquefied natural gas, from spot market from next month to rip the benefit of low price of the fossil fuel in international market.

Currently, two FSRUs, owned by US-based Excelerate Energy and local Summit Group, are re-gasifying around 600 million cubic feet per day, or mmcfd, of LNG.

Both the FSRUs have the capacity to re-gasify around 500 mmcfd of LNG each.

Bangladesh imports around five to six cargoes from term suppliers Qatargas and OTI every month to meet mounting natural gas demand.