The Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) will be seeking the prime minister's permission today to appoint a consulting firm to perform a 2D survey of the country's underwater energy resources, an official said.
This will be the first meeting between EMRD and the premier, who holds the power and mineral resources portfolio, since the settlement of a maritime dispute with India to definitively set the extent of Bangladesh's maritime boundary.
“We will be placing a presentation on oil and gas exploration before the premier at her office,” EMRD Secretary Md Abubakar Siddique told the Dhaka Tribune.
Secretaries of different ministries and divisions will attend today’s meeting which will be presided over by the prime minister, officials said.
“The international oil companies will be interested if we complete a 2D seismic survey before inviting tenders for the new blocks,” Petrobangla Chairman Hossain Monsur told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“There are companies who will carry out the surveys and sell the data directly to the international oil firms. We won't have any expenses because the work will be done under production sharing contracts (PSC),” he said.
After a two year pause, the government will be formulating a fresh production sharing contract (PSC) model to award offshore hydrocarbon blocks in the Bay of Bengal.
The previous four rounds were floated in 1974, 1993, 2008 and 2012.
Bangladesh now has 23 hydrocarbon blocks in the bay.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at Hague, Netherlands recently awarded Bangladesh 19,467 square-kilometres, out of the total 25,602 square-kilometres disputed with India, in the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh won another case against Myanmar in 2012, following which it received over 111,000 square-kilometres of area, including the disputed 25,000 square-kilometres.
In 2011, a PSC was signed between ConocoPhillips and Petrobangla to explore two offshore blocks. That was the country’s first ever deep-water hydrocarbon hunt.
