SINGAPORE - Qatar's RasGas Co signed a 15-year liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales and purchase agreement with Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corp (Petrobangla) on Monday, RasGas said in a statement late on Monday.

Under the agreement, the Qatari company will supply 2.5 million tonnes of LNG every year to Petrobangla for 15 years.

Deliveries will be made to Petrobangla's floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) near Moheshkhali Island in Bangladesh, marking RasGas' first long-term contract delivered to a FSRU, the company said.

The deal is Bangladesh's first LNG import agreement and will help to cover the country's domestic natural gas shortfall. The contract with the world's biggest LNG exporter underscores the rise of South Asia as a new market for the fuel.

Bangladesh's first floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), supplied by Excelerate Energy of the United States, is to be commissioned by April 2018. Its second, supplied by the country's own Summit LNG of the Summit Group, is due for commissioning by next October.

Bangladesh is also looking to add two additional floating LNG terminals next year.

Bangladesh, a country of more than 160 million people, could import as much as 17.5 million tonnes of LNG a year by 2025, Nasrul Hamid, Bangladesh's state minister for energy and power, told Reuters last month.

(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Richard Pullin) ((Jessica.Jaganathan@thomsonreuters.com; +65 6870 3822; Reuters Messaging: jessica.jaganathan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))