Iran strikes BD LNG imports at risk20 Mar 2026 11:21
iranian strike on ras laffan puts bangladesh’s lng imports at risk
staff correspondent
publish: friday march 20 2026, 06:08
ras laffan industrial city | photo: reuters
the wider middle east conflict has also sent global energy prices soaring. spot market lng prices are now hovering around $20.17 per million british thermal units (mmbtu), having doubled over the past month.
qatar remains the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (lng) to bangladesh, with the state-owned qatarenergy supplying roughly 42 percent of the country’s total lng imports.
the source of that supply is the sprawling ras laffan industrial complex — the world’s largest lng processing and export facility. it suffered extensive damage in a missile attack on wednesday night. that assault now threatens to disrupt shipments to bangladesh. india and ****stan, also major customers, face similar concerns. international energy bodies warn that a prolonged interruption to qatari supplies could trigger severe power generation and industrial crises in those countries.
according to petrobangla, bangladesh has long-term deals with qatar and oman. the agreement with qatarenergy provides for annual imports of between 1.8 million and 2.5 million tonnes. this means that at the upper end of that range, qatar accounts for roughly 42 percent of bangladesh’s annual lng purchases.
qatar is a giant global lng supplier and has been supplying gas to developing economies such as bangladesh since 2018. its export operations are managed from the ras laffan facility. the damage inflicted by wednesday’s missile strike, experts say, risks causing long-term disruption to the infrastructure, placing countries across asia that are most dependent on qatari gas in a precarious position.
ras laffan map
the energy analytics firm kepler notes that ****stan and bangladesh source 99 percent and 70 percent of their lng imports, respectively, from qatar.
the petrobangla subsidiary rpgcl manages bangladesh’s lng import and supply operations. senior officials at the company said they have received no indication that the missile attack will disrupt shipments, nor have any supplier countries warned that exports might be halted.
asked whether the strike on ras laffan might affect supply, rpgcl’s managing director, engineer md anwarul islam, told bonik barta: “there’s no problem with supply for our lng imports from qatar. we haven’t received any message from the qatari side to suggest a supply crisis is developing.”
the country imports more than five million tonnes of lng per year, equivalent to over 90 cargoes. in the 2024–25 fiscal year, petrobangla brought in 5.80 million tonnes, of which 2.46 million tonnes came from qatar. of the 94 cargoes that arrived that year, 40 were qatari.
for the current 2025–26 fiscal year, petrobangla estimates it will purchase 115 cargoes. forty of those are scheduled to come from qatar. according to rpgcl’s latest tally, 24 of those shipments have a
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