A proposal to award the shallow sea block 11 in the Bay of Bengal is being placed at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs scheduled today.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) would propose to award the block to a joint venture initiative of Santos and Kris Energy Limited to explore hydrocarbons under a production sharing contract, officials said.
“We hope to sign the initial (a pre-PSC agreement) following the necessary approval by the cabinet committee,” said a Petrobangla official.
The proposal is being placed at the meeting following an approval by the prime minister on September 20 based on submission of bid documents by the joint venture on July 29.
Santos and Kris Energy had offered to explore block 11 through conducting 870-line kilometres of mandatory 2D seismic survey, a 300sq-km 3D seismic survey, and drilling one well within the initial period of five years.
They would spend $32m for the exploratory well and other works, and would deposit bank guarantees worth $15m as proposed in the bidding.
Santos is currently producing gas at block 16 while Kris Energy has signed an agreement to takeover Tullow Bangladesh Limited’s operations at Bangura gas field of onshore block 9 for 16 years at an expense of $42.35m.
