Photo : Collected
The deadline for submitting tenders ended at 1 pm on Monday unfortunately not a single tender has been submitted. Now the situation will be reviewed anew, said officials.
Seven foreign companies initially purchased the tender documents for oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal. The deadline was extended by three months to make it more competitive. However, no foreign company came forward in the end.
To attract international gas exploration companies, the earlier government has amended the PSC offering better opportunities unfortunately, respond of global giants found very poor.
Experts think, instead of giants, the government should prefer the medium companies to keep the price lowest. Bigger companies dominate the negotiation. And, in the initiative level, small and medium companies work better.
“Of course, bidding is a good initiative but the government should choose the small and medium companies to ensure the lowest price,” Makbul E Elahi, former director of BAPEX told the Daily Messenger.
He also concerns over the high price of offshore gas. He says “The neighbors paying less than 7 dollars where Bangladesh offers 10 dollars excluding corporate tax. However, India, Myanmar pay 6.5 dollars. During 25 years, USA increased to 3.5 dollars from 2.5 dollars.”
He thinks, if the government invites medium companies 50 more companies may come to participate the bidding results the bidding rounds might be more competitive. Moreover, the government should open the data for all so that the companies can evaluate the potentialities. He recommends not offer two blocks to the one company to control the monopoly.
However, possibility of obtaining gas by carrying out multi-dimensional survey in the sea, various foreign companies have been showing interest in oil-gas exploration since last year. Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Division said 55 companies were invited to participate in the tender. Six of these only companies have bought the tender. However, participation in the tender procedure going to end on September 9.
After a decade of maritime dispute with Myanmar, the government seriously want to drive for extracting the gas and oil through maintaining proper procedure instead of much criticized special act titled ‘Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010’.
Meanwhile, the interim has scraped the mentioned act. So, the project will not be implemented under the act. So, there are some questions have been raised whether the tender will be float again.
And Chevron, ExxonMobil, GAZPROME and other international companies had bought the data of the sea as the company is keen to have the work in exploration of the sea.
The then officials said that they would go through the proper procedure. I hope the both US based companies Chevron and Exxon will participate with the competitive price. But reality tells different story.
And Chevron has bought the data of the sea as the company is keen to have the work in exploration of the. An official of Petrobangla said the US based gas exploration company which currently working in Bangladesh’s gas field Bibiana and supply 60 percent of the gas to the national grid, has bought the data and other information of the sea but Chevron also did not participate.
However, the US company said that they want to conduct two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) surveys in the search for oil and gas in the deep sea of Bangladesh and expressed his interest in signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) by August 2023 that has been postponed.
The US multinational company ExxonMobil has offered to invest $30 billion (three thousand crore) in the exploration and extraction of oil and gas in the deep sea of Bangladesh. The ExxonMobil’s Opportunity Manager Jonathan Wilson has written to Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources expressing interest.
In addition, the ExxonMobil said in the letter that the company estimated to invest $100 billion if the seismic survey indicates the possibility of viable gas and oil.
Meanwhile, the earlier government had taken a decision in principle to award block-8 and Block-11 to the US based gas exploration company Chevron and Russian state-owned Gazprom drilling job in Shahabazpur-5,7 and Bhola Island.
Industry insiders think, these projects may ease the primary fuel crisis while fuel is getting pricier in the world market due to inflation. But the job should be awarded through an open bidding procedure instead of Special Act to ensure the transparency and competitiveness.
But, the formula of the agreement has yet to finalized. Chevron has been asked to submit a foolproof proposal on the project, which will supposed to be finalized later.”
Chevron supplies gas and condensate to the country from Bibiana, Jalalabad and Moulvibazar gas fields under Production Sharing Agreement (PSC), Gas Purchase Sale Agreement (GPSA) and Condensate Purchase Sale Agreement (CPSA).
About 1,300 million cubic feet of gas is being supplied to the national gas grid daily from Bibiana, Jalalabad and Moulvibazar gas fields operated by Chevron, which is more than 55 percent of the total gas production in the country.
Messenger/Tushar
