As officials gathered in Patuakhali district on Wednesday to mark 10 years since the first survey for a planned gas terminal, a review of procurement records and parliamentary replies revealed a longer, costlier promise buried in the project’s contract. The state-owned Bengal Strait Energy Authority agreed to pay fees for 22 years of expanded terminal capacity, whether or not it uses the service.
The minimum bill is ৳38.6 billion, calculated from the contract’s annual capacity charge and the authority’s stated exchange-rate assumptions. That sum covers reservation fees alone, not the cost of buying gas. Public project summaries describe the expansion as conditional on future demand and do not mention a guaranteed payment for unused capacity.
The fee behind the expansion
The agreement, signed in 2021 with North Quay LNG Services, reserves capacity for up to 4.2 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year from 2027. A schedule registered with the national procurement office sets an annual minimum charge, with adjustments linked to inflation and the taka-dollar exchange rate. The rate applies even when no cargo is delivered.
The authority’s 2022 public summary said payments would rise only after the second phase began operating. But a 2024 parliamentary answer gave no figure for a minimum fee, and its budget tables grouped terminal charges with other import costs. The contract schedule surfaced in a court filing by landowners seeking clarification of the project boundary.
The public was told the expansion could wait for demand; the fee cannot.
Maria Löfgren, energy-market analyst
The anniversary ceremony took place beside a concrete survey marker near the proposed site, where fishing households have spent a decade waiting to learn whether their plots will be acquired. “They came back with banners, but nobody can tell us what the final footprint is,” said Jens G. Sommer, secretary of a local fishers’ association. He said 63 families had received no written notice of a purchase.
Who pays if demand falls
The authority says the fee buys access to supply during shortages and is not a payment for gas that was never delivered. Its spokesperson, Rodica Szekely-Pascu, said the contract was approved after “a competitive process” and that the expansion could lower the cost of emergency imports. She did not explain why the guaranteed charge was missing from earlier public summaries.
Energy analyst Emmanuel B. Georges, who reviewed the fee schedule, said the ৳38.6 billion estimate assumes the current contract period and published adjustment formula. If demand is lower than forecast, taxpayers could pay the reservation charge while the terminal stands idle; if the taka weakens further, the bill could climb. The figure is a floor, not a cap.
The government’s budget office said it would ask the authority for a full account of the commitment before the next parliamentary budget session. The chair of the legislature’s energy committee, speaking through the committee secretariat, said members would seek a hearing in October. The authority has not said whether it will publish the complete payment schedule.
For residents who attended the first survey meeting in 2016, the anniversary brought back a familiar uncertainty: officials still cannot say how much land the expansion will take, while the state has already agreed to pay for its capacity. The authority’s latest timetable puts a final investment decision in 2027.
