The US-based energy company ConocoPhillips has submitted a new proposal to Petrobangla to make a 2D seismic survey to explore oil and gas in the Bay of Bengal, although it has not yet submitted the report of its previous survey which was due in May.
ConcoPhillips submitted the proposal at a joint meeting with the Petrobangla yesterday.
The company’s actions were nothing but an effort to delay the survey of the Bay of Bengal for oil and gas, said a Petrobangla official requesting anonymity.
Earlier, Petrobangla Director Muhammad Imaduddin had announced that ConcoPhillips would publish the result of the 2,600 line kilometres 2D seismic survey to explore oil and gas by May, but it is still under process.
Imaduddin said he did not know anything about the submission of the 2,600 line kilometres survey report of ConcoPhillips. He said the company yesterday submitted a proposal asking permission to conduct a survey of 3,000 line kilometres to explore oil and gas.
According to Petrobangla officials, a ConcoPhillips vessel will come to Bangladesh on July 27 to do preliminary work for the 3,000 line kilometres survey for three months and the survey will start in September.
A production sharing contract (PSC) was signed between ConocoPhillips and Petrobangla on June 16, 2011 for offshore blocks 10 and 11.
In February last year, Petrobangla approved the ConocoPhillips survey plans after which it hired a Chinese contractor, BGP, for the job.
According to the PSC, ConocoPhillips will explore the blocks for nine years. After the initial five years of primary exploration it will develop the well.
The company will also conduct a survey and exploration in the deep-sea blocks, an area of 5,158sqkm where the depth ranges between 1,000m and 1,500m. The blocks are about 280km from the Chittagong port.
The energy giant has pledged a $160m bank guarantee for the work in three phases.
Bangladesh has been in the throes of a severe gas crisis over the past few years.
Recently ConocoPhillips submitted a tender for the shallow block 7 in the Bay of Bengal to explore oil and gas.
