The energy sector last week presented one great news as well as a frustrating one. The long-awaited supply of regasified LNG (RLNG) started on August 12 from the country’s first floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) to Chittagong Ring Main area of Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited (KGDCL). It could be considered as a milestone achievement. On the other hand, the Indian HDD (Horizontal Directionally Drilled) contractor failed to complete the 42 inches diameter 1.2-kilometer HDD pipeline crossing the Karnaphuli river as part of Anwara-Faujdarhat 42 inches 28-Km gas transmission pipeline, restricting evacuation of the RLNG into the national gas grid.
The contractor, Zip Sum India, failed to pull back the pipe stuck in the drilled hole after pulling more than half of it. The works had to be abandoned, making completion of the pipeline impossible. The ongoing construction of Karnaphuli river tunnel would not let any future HDD river crossing in the area. The contractor had earlier failed in its attempt for drilling the hole below the riverbed while reaming and its drill string got stuck. It is a very frustrating and unfortunate development that it did not only make the works of Anwara-Faujdarhat project futile, it also triggered crisis for the entire program of LNG import and RLNG evacuation.
As per the Petrobangla agreement with the FSRU owner and operator, Excelerate Energy -- a Singapore-based US company -- mobilized FSRU and a LNG carrier vessel from Qatar with the first consignment of LNG anchored at Maheshkhali offshore in the third week of April 2018. It was the responsibility of the FSRU owner to connect its facility with the Custody Transfer Metering Station (CTMS) of Gas Transmission Company Ltd (GTCL) through a sub-sea pipeline. Petrobangla informed that the reaming works would take about 7 days and the RLNG would be flowing into the gas system by the first week of May 2018. But some construction glitches of the FSRU owner-engaged sub-contractor has led it to inordinate delays, and after rescheduling on several occasions, finally the RLNG could be supplied to the Maheshkhali-Anwara gas transmission pipeline on August 12, 2018. It is not known yet how the leakage through flanges of the sub-sea pipeline has been remedied. However, Bangladesh entered into a new era of using imported LNG with the commencement of the gas supply to Chittagong Ring Main.
GTCL earlier constructed the Maheshkhali-Anwara 30 inches 90-Km pipeline and was ready to receive RLNG at its CTMS at Maheshkhali for a while. Few questions were raised about the quality and workmanship of various segment of the pipeline. GTCL also connected Anwara CGS with 20 inches segment of Chittagong Ring Main. This facility would enable GTCL to evacuate up to 250 MMCFD RLNG while the reaming 250 MMCFD cannot be evacuated until the Anwara–Faujdarhat 28-Km 42 inches pipeline is completed. Now the failure of 42 inches 1.2-Km Karnaphuli river crossing has made this impossible in the near future.
It has been learnt that the Indian contractor did not have any past proven track records of successfully implementing any HDD crossing of similar diameter and length. It has also been learnt that no soil investigation was done either by GTCL or the contractor across the drill profile. Even after encountering hard materials while reaming the drill-hole after the first abortive attempt, GTCL could not make the contractor going for the soil investigation. Due to this failure, GTCL could not complete the Anwara-Faujdarhat pipeline though the other segments are ready and subject to successful completion of the river crossing.
This failure has put the entire LNG import program through FSRU and the land-based terminals at Maheshkhali and Kutubdia in jeopardy. This is a major failure and it warrants a thorough investigation by a proper committee.
The unwanted situation raised questions as to why construction of the Anwara-Faujdarhat pipeline was taken up so late as it was a key to evacuate the RLNG to the national grid.
Also, why subsoil investigation was not done before aligning the pipeline there? Why provision for a contractor with similar experience was not incorporated in the prequalification criteria? Why the contractor’s plan and program was approved by GTCL without having confirmed of the subsoil condition?
There must be an investigation into all the high-pressure gas transmission pipelines built in the recent times about the quality and workmanship.
In the present condition, it would be possible to evacuate up to only 250 MMCFD of RLNG in Chittagong Ring Main. Another 100-150 MMCFD of RLNG could be evacuated if the spur-lines directly feed Karnaphuli Fertilizer Company Limited (KAFCO), Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Company Limited (CUFL) and the power plants at Shikalbaha could be constructed.
Engr Khondkar A Saleque;
NRB, Energy Professional
