Oil and Gas Exploration in Offshore Area of Bangladesh will Delayed

Oil and Gas Exploration in Offshore area in Bangladesh will not start by this winter. According to officials, Bangladesh will not be able to start the process of offshore oil and gas exploration by this winter.

BdNews24.Com Reports:

The interim cabinet at a meeting on Sunday directed the officials to place fresh proposals after further scrutiny for signing contracts with the two companies previously nominated through technical evaluation.

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed chaired the meeting.

After the meeting, M Tamim, special assistant to the chief adviser in charge of power, energy, and mineral resources, told bdnews24.com that directives were given to scan those proposals.

The ministry officials said as exploration work usually starts in the winter Bangladesh lags behind most neighbouring countries.

The two companies winning the bid are Conoco-Phillips and Tullow. The former is due to get eight deep-sea blocks –10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 – while the latter is set to sign a production-sharing contract for Block 5, they said.

it also reports:

The government called an international tender on Feb 15 for 28 offshore blocks, and Petrobangla opened the bid documents on May 7 to complete evaluation of the proposals in three weeks.

Seven international companies that responded include the Houston-based Conoco-Phillips, Australia’s Santos International, Longwoods Resources (a US-China joint venture), Korea International Oil Corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), Comtrack Services and London-based Tullow.

The government would sign a four-year exploration deal for shallow sea blocks and a five-year for deep-sea blocks – both renewable by four years, officials said.

Following submission of development plans, agreement will be signed for gas and oil fields for 25 years and 20 years respectively.

The companies will pay compensation in case of accidents stemming from neglect and inefficiency.

Any company wishing to sell more than 50 percent of its shares would have to take permission from the government, ministry officials said.