An Australian and a Singaporean firm yesterday initiated a two-dimensional seismic survey in the 3,000 line-kilometre area of the hydrocarbon block 11 in the shallow sea of the Bay of Bengal.
This is the first joint venture operation of Australia-based Santos and Singapore-based Kris Energy as they were awarded on shallow block under the Model Production Sharing Contract 2012.
“They are now gathering data and the survey will be completed by February,” a Petrobangla official said.
The firms submitted a proposal to carry out the survey in the 3,000 line-kilometre area which will cost around $9 million, he said.
“They selected French geophysical services company CGG as a third party for the survey. The block is very close to Myanmar and is believed to contain greater resources as it is different from other shallow blocks,” he added.
On March 12 last year, Bangladesh signed the deal with Santos and Kris Energy to start oil and gas exploration in the offshore shallow block 11.
The government and Petrobangla jointly signed the production-sharing contract (PSC).
The contract was made for eight years, with the first five years for initial exploration and the rest for subsequent exploration.
Santos and Kris Energy offered to invest $32 million to conduct the two-dimensional seismic survey, a three-dimensional seismic survey in a 300 square-kilometre area, and drill a well.
The government will get 55%-80% of the profit for both gas and oil.
If the companies go into commercial operation, Bapex will bear 10% of the total investment.
