Chairman of Petrobangla Janendra Nath Sarkar has confirmed to Barta24.com that an international tender will be floated for oil and gas exploration in the sea on March 7.
Earlier this month, the Chairman of Petrobangla confirmed that the tender will be called in March. He said, 6 months time will be given for submission of bid documents. We want to finalize PSC (Production Sharing Contract) in November or December. Before this, road-shows will be held in different countries.
What about companies like American multinationals Exon Mobil and Chevron who have shown interest in the past? In response to such questions, the Chairman of Petrobangla said, we are moving towards competitive rates. Here the company whose proposal is good and those who are considered qualified will get the job.
According to Petrobangla sources, PSC has been made attractive to attract multinational companies. The price of gas has been fixed in the previous PSCs, but this time the price of gas has not been fixed. The price of gas will rise with the international market price of Brent Crude. The price of gas per thousand cubic feet is equal to 10 percent of Brent crude. That is, if the price of Brent crude is 80 dollars, the price of gas will be 8 dollars which in the existing PSC had a fixed rate of 5.6 dollars and 7.25 dollars in shallow and deep sea respectively. Brent crude prices will be averaged over the entire month.
Along with the price, the share ratio of the government has also been lowered. According to Model PSC-2019, the proportion of Bangladesh will continue to increase with the increase in gas production. And the shares of multinational companies continue to decrease. Bangladesh's share will rise from 35 to 60 percent in the deep sea and 40 to 65 percent in the shallow sea. However, if the contractor does not get gas by digging a well within two years of the stipulated time or if it is not commercially extractable, there is an opportunity to increase the share by 1 and 2 percent respectively. In case of gas sale, the first proposal should be given to Petrobangla, if Petrobangla does not want to take it, the foreign company will get the opportunity to sell gas to a third party. With the update of PSC, many giant companies including US companies Chevron, Exxon Mobil have become interested in investing in offshore oil and gas exploration. They have already held several meetings with Bangladesh.
On Tuesday (February 20), the delegation of Exxon Mobil met with the Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid.
When the State Minister was asked about the meeting, he said that Exxon Mobil had first written a letter asking for a block lease in sea. A few days later he expressed his interest in doing a 2D seismic survey. Asked whether they are interested in participating in the bidding round. The Exxon Mobil delegation wanted to speak.
After settling the maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar in 2012 and India in 2014 in the international court, the ownership of a total of 1 lakh 18 thousand 813 square kilometers of sea area was established by Bangladesh. A decade later, the success of the sea border did not come to fruition, especially in terms of mineral resources. Energy experts believe that the solution to the dire energy crisis of the country is hidden under this huge body of water because Myanmar has got huge gas reserves next to the block of Bangladesh. It is believed that the doors of possibilities are going to open through the new tender.
On the other hand, the Energy and Mineral Resources Division decided to conduct a comprehensive multi-dimensional survey in the vast sea area. The Norwegian company TGS and France's Schlumberger Consortium prepared their report. Eric M. Walker, managing director and CEO of Chevron Bangladesh recently told the media that Chevron is checking all that information.