Summit has announced that Summit LNG Terminal Co Pvt Limited (SLNG) is now ready for ship-to-ship transfer and regasification of liquefied natural gas 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 Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) was initially damaged by Cyclone Remal, Summit has spent millions of dollars in repair-related expenditure, read a press release.

On 23 May, the ship-to-ship transfer was strategically avoided due to the onset of the cyclone.

On 27 May, during the peak of the cyclone, 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 by international expert surveyors, the FSRU with Disconnectable Cone and plugs was sailed to Singapore for dry docking.

Upon repairs, the FSRU returned to Moheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar on 10 July.

The next day, during the preparation for mooring of 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, according to the release.

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, 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 daunting and exhausting 131 subsea diving, engineers from Norway, Australia, and the Summit LNG Terminal team restored the terminal’s subsea assets back to normal.

On 11 September, the terminal was successfully connected to the holdback anchors and Summit LNG Terminal is now ready for regasification and ship-to-ship operation.