Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 28

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Bangladesh defends gas price hike
BANGLADESH
BANGLADESHI Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has defended the government’s decision to implement a natural gas price hike on July 1, saying the move was necessary to support eco- nomic growth.
Hasina, who was speaking to reporters on July 8 following a ve-day visit to China, said state-run Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Com- mission (BERC) had raised prices in order to help the country meet its growth target of 8.2% for nancial year 2019-20.
The BERC upped average prices by 32.8% BDT7.38 ($0.087) per cubic metre to BDT9.80 ($0.116) per cm at the start of the month.
Hasina pointed to the heavy subsidy burden for LNG imports, which cost BDT62.12 ($0.736) per cm. She said that subsidies a er the price hike would cost the state more than BDT10bn ($118.4mn).
“If you really want Bangladesh to grow, you’ll have to accept the [new] gas price,” the prime minister said. She added: “Either we should refrain from increasing economic growth by
reducing LNG imports or accept the price hike in the interest of economic development.”
Dismissing arguments that India had lowered its gas prices this year, Hasina said Bangladesh still paid less, with Indian households paying up to BDT37 ($0.438) per cm.
Hasina also blamed past energy policies, say- ing that had the government embraced in 2004- 2005 India’s plan to import gas from Myanmar via a pipeline through Bangladesh, then her country could have tapped some of the supply and might have been able to avoid its growing reliance on LNG imports.
Bangladesh reportedly received interest from a dozen companies to build the country’s rst onshore LNG terminal in June. e companies included Mitsui, Korea Gas (KOGAS), Summit Group, Petronet LNG and an unnamed French company. A committee will evaluate the propos- als before creating a shortlist and it could take more than a year for a contract to be awarded, which will be on a 20-year build-own-operate (BOO) basis.™
APLNG signs domestic supply agreements
AUSTRALIA
THE Australia Paci c LNG (APLNG) project has signed natural gas supply agreements with explosives manufacturer Orica and packaging manufacturer Orora.
Under the deals, Orica will receive 10.2 petajoules (265.69mn cubic metres) of gas over four years starting from 2021, while Orora will receive 6 PJ (156.29 mcm) over three years start- ing from 2023. e agreements come in the wake of federal and state government policy decisions that are putting mounting pressure on Queens- land’s gas export sector.
South Australia’s Centre Alliance Party has traded its support for the Australian govern- ment’s proposed tax reforms for a seat at the table during the gas export reform process.
“The full package of reforms will be announced by government in the coming weeks, but will include changes to the Aus- tralian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism [ADGSM] to deal with current pricing, market transparency measures, measures to deal with the monopoly nature of East Coast gas pipelines and longer-term measures to ensure future gas projects deliver surplus supply to the Australian
market,” Centre Alliance said on July 4.
“ e ADGSM has worked to ensure there is enough supply, but has not dealt with price,” it added. “ ere has been a market failure and
government must intervene.”
The Queensland government, meanwhile,
increased its natural gas royalties by 2.5 percent- age points on July 1 to 12.5%. e state said the sector had enjoyed “incredibly competitive roy- alty rates” and it was now time to give back.
The energy sector has naturally pushed backed at both these moves. Queensland Resources Council (QRC) EO Ian Macfarlane said APLNG’s supply agreements with Orica and Orora demonstrated the bene ts of a stable regulatory environment.
“ e Queensland gas industry is leading the nation with a proactive approach to easing the East Coast gas squeeze. Queensland’s neigh- bours must take a leaf out of our book, instead of relying on our state to meet the gap caused by their failure to develop their own gas industries. Gas exploration has stalled in New South Wales and Victoria, despite the fact all jurisdictions havetheirownreservesintheground.”™
Week 28 16 •July•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7