A minimum price of $8.50 per mcf to extract oil and natural gas from the Bay of Bengal should be fixed to attract foreign companies, former chairman Petrobangla Dr Hossain Mansur said yesterday.
The former Petrobangla boss was speaking at a two-day conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) being held at Dhaka University (DU).
The DU student chapter of the SPE and the university’s department of geology jointly organised the programme.
At the conference, the first of its kind at Dhaka University, Hossain said no foreign company would be interested in extracting gas in offshore areas if prices were not increased.
“The gas sector cannot be taken forward if we do not bring down the difference of prices between liquid fuel and gas,” he said.
Professor of geology Badrul Imam said: “The industrialised countries have increased the temperature of the earth by burning fossil fuels. Now, they should pay compensation for this to the least developed countries.”
Masuma Chowdhury, president of the DU chapter of the SPE, said: “This is the first time we have arranged such a programme and I hope it will continue in the future. Such conferences introduce young geologists to national and multinational companies.”
The pro-vice chancellor for administration at DU Prof Dr Shahid Akhter Hossain was present as chief guest while Professor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal, dean of the faculty of earth and environmental sciences, was present as special guest.
The event, for which the Dhaka Tribune was the print media partner, was sponsored KrisEnergy and RMM Group.