Bangladesh plans to purchase two additional spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes by mid-August to ease the ongoing energy shortage affecting industries, power plants, and other major consumers.

State-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL), responsible for the country’s LNG trading, issued a tender seeking two spot cargoes for delivery on August 3-4 and August 14-15, a senior RPGCL official told The Financial Express on Thursday.

Each cargo will carry around 3.36 million MMBtu (million British thermal units) of LNG and will be delivered to the Moheshkhali Island facilities in the Bay of Bengal. The cargoes will be regasified at one of the two floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) stationed there. The bid submission deadline is set for July 7.

This procurement forms part of an interim government strategy to purchase six additional LNG cargoes between late May and August to bolster re-gasified natural gas supplies for industrial and power sector use. Bangladesh bought six spot cargoes in May—its highest ever for a single month—and five more in July.

The country sources most of its LNG imports under long-term contracts with QatarEnergy and OQ Trading International, but has increasingly turned to the spot market to meet short-term demand spikes. Recently, Vitol Asia Pte Ltd won a tender to supply an LNG cargo for late July delivery at $13.52 per MMBtu.

Despite these efforts, Bangladesh faces an acute energy crisis, exacerbated by declining domestic gas production. Official data as of July 3 show the country’s total natural gas output, including imported LNG, at 2,869 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), well short of the estimated demand of over 4,000 mmcfd. Of the total supply, re-gasified LNG contributed 1,024 mmcfd.

The supply shortfall has forced the authorities to continue rationing gas across industrial units, power stations, and other major users. The two operational FSRUs at Moheshkhali have a combined regasification capacity of 1,100 mmcfd.

Officials say spot LNG purchases remain essential to bridging the supply gap, as energy demand continues to outpace available resources.