Summit LNG Terminal is Ready for Gas Supply to the National Grid
Photo caption: Summit’s Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) is now ready to supply gas to the national grid after three months of repeated weather related deterrence.
(Moheshkhali, 11 September 2024, Wednesday): Summit is pleased to announce that Summit LNG Terminal Co Pvt Limited (“SLNG”) is now ready for ship-to-ship transfer and regasification of LNG in order to send out 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of regasified LNG to the national grid.
Considering the national importance of SLNG to meet the demand of power, fertiliser and gas in the industrial sectors, Summit’s officials along with its international partners have been working tirelessly around the clock to resume gas supply to the national grid. During the period of over three months when Summit's FSRU was initially damaged by cyclone Remal, Summit has spent millions of dollars in repair related expenditure.
Background: On 23rd May 2024, the ship-to-ship transfer was strategically avoided due the onset of cyclone Remal. A few days later on 27th May 2024, during the peak of cyclone Remal, a stray broken floating pontoon weighing hundreds of tonnes repeatedly hit Summit’s FSRU causing damage to the ballast water tank.
After assessment of the damage to the FSRU by international expert surveyors, the FSRU with Disconnectable Cone and plugs, sailed to Singapore for dry docking. Upon repairs on 10th July 2024, the FSRU had returned from Singapore to Moheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar. On the next day, 11th July 2024, during the preparation for mooring, the FSRU with the Disconnectable Turret Mooring (DTM) plug in the subsea landing pad, there was an unexpected entanglement and damage to the DTM buoy messenger line. Soon after, MacGregor and CAN System, both Norwegian-based world renowned maritime companies and Shelf Subsea, a Singapore-based company, were all appointed by SLNG to safely moor the FSRU by rectifying the mishap of offset DTM on the subsea landing pad. At that time eastern Bangladesh was experiencing its worst floods in 34 years. The silt flowing into the sea made underwater visibility almost zero. This posed a significant obstacle to the undersea damage identification and rectification by the internationally licensed subsea diving team.
To reconnect the FSRU, the DTM plug had to be repositioned on the centre of the landing pad (located on the seafloor). Although the Anchor Handling Tug (AHT) named Coral was equipped to perform this repositioning, unfortunately, Coral was unable to exert the force required to reposition the DTM. Therefore, a stronger and higher capacity crane to move the DTM, ‘Oriental Dragon’, a Diving Support Vessel (DSV) was contracted by Summit. By the end of August 2024, the Oriental Dragon was able to complete all 35 dives and repositioned the Gravity Anchor in order for the regas and STS tests to be completed. After 131 daunting and exhausting dives in challenging weather and sea conditions, engineers from Norway, Australia and the Summit LNG Terminal team managed to restore the Terminal’s subsea assets to normal condition. Today, the Terminal was successfully connected to the Holdback Anchors and Summit LNG Terminal is now ready for regasification and ship-to-ship operation.
Chart: Summit FSRU’s sequel of events since the cyclone Remal.