Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, also known as PetroBangla is eyeing joint ventures in three foreign countries to meet coal imports demand of the upcoming power plants.
The company may form JVs with coal companies in South Africa, Australia and Indonesia, either by taking lease of the coalfields or by operating them through investments.
The need for entering into JVs arise after many private and public power producers in the country were in talks with foreign coal companies over the possibilities of importing coal for their upcoming power plants. The Government then found out that it would be more feasible to import coal by themselves instead of relying on other organizations.
Under the Power Sector Master Plan, the Bangladesh government is aiming to produce 24,000 MW of electricity by 2021 and 39,000 MW by 2030. Out of which 20,000 MW is to come from coal powered plants, including the upcoming “Maitree power project” which the Bangladesh Power Development Board is developing in collaboration with the Government of India.
According to the data compiled by CoalMint Research, Bangladesh coal imports had jumped about 5 times to 292,950 MT in Oct’17, compared with 55,000 MT in Sep’17.
So far, a total quantity of 1,430,350 MT coal has been imported majorly by brick manufacturers in the country. With so many imported coal based plants in the pipeline, Bangladesh coal import is likely to surge manifolds.
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