Anisul Islam Noor :
The state-owned BAPEX’s two rigs have remained idle as the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources prefers exploration through foreign firms, official sources said.
The ministry has been awarding the drilling job of different gas wells to Russian gazprom at higher cost despite the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) has the similar drilling capacity in almost half of the cost, they said.
The Gazprom started drilling programme for five gas wells in the onshore after completing its 10-well drilling at higher costs compared to that of BAPEX.
The Russian firm got the drilling jobs under the speedy supply of the Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act 2010 bypassing the tender.
“Gazprom did such job previously too by ‘snatching’ the drilling job of Srikail-4 and Bakhrabad-10 from BAPEX. Though BAPEX was all set to initiate drilling of the wells, finally they were handed over to Gazprom for drilling,” the officials lamented.
They said, Gazprom carried out a 10-well drilling programme at a total cost of US$193.5 million, with an average drilling cost of $19.3 million per well.
The cost of drilling wells by Gazprom is almost thrice the cost of drilling any development well by the BAPEX, which ranges between $6.0-7.0 million per well.
The quality of drilling carried out by Gazprom is not up to the mark, the officials said, adding the production from the Gazprom-drilled wells is also less than expected.
When contacted, Professor Ijaz Hossain of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) argued that the government should not continue awarding Gazprom the drilling jobs without evaluating the
Russian firm’s previous performance.
“The government should award such drilling job through tender as gas fields are public property,” said Prof Ijaz, also an energy expert.
But Gazprom’s drilling has been faulty as natural gas production from four of its previously drilled 10 onshore gas wells were shut within several months of finishing the job, claimed a BAPEX official requesting not to be named.
BAPEX had to carry out ‘work-over’ to remove post-drilling faults in Titas-21 and Shahbazpur-4 gas wells, which were previously drilled by Gazprom, to re-initiate gas production at Bapex’s costs.
The state-run gas firm has also planned to do the same on two more onshore gas wells Begumganj-3 and Semutang-6 which were drilled by Gazprom but remained shut due to ‘faulty’ drilling, said the official.
Despite previous ‘faulty’ drillings by Gazprom, an influential quarter is active again to award the Russian firm more drilling programmes keeping BAPEX idle, said the BAPEX official without mentioning the name of the quarter.
“Gazprom is now eyeing to get the drilling jobs of Bhola north and Shahbazpur east gas fields too in addition to its already awarded job, which BAPEX had planned previously to drill,” the official alleged.
“We had done everything like readying of roads and purchase of necessary material to initiate drilling in these two gas fields,” said the BAPEX official.
“If we were given nod to carry out the drilling, we would be able to initiate it by January 2017,” he said. But BAPEX is yet to get the nod, he lamented.
The government should at the same time make it clear why it was interested again to award drilling jobs to Gazprom without tender depriving BAPEX, professor Izaj said.
“Had there been open bidding, the government could save at least one-fourth of the costs the government incurred for drilling five onshore gas wells by any reputed international firms,” said Professor M Tamim, a former special assistant to the chief of caretaker government.
Gazprom never took part in the country’s bidding rounds for oil and gas exploration. It is the first foreign company to operate in Bangladesh on a contract basis.
The state-owned BAPEX’s two rigs have remained idle as the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources prefers exploration through foreign firms, official sources said.
The ministry has been awarding the drilling job of different gas wells to Russian gazprom at higher cost despite the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) has the similar drilling capacity in almost half of the cost, they said.
The Gazprom started drilling programme for five gas wells in the onshore after completing its 10-well drilling at higher costs compared to that of BAPEX.
The Russian firm got the drilling jobs under the speedy supply of the Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act 2010 bypassing the tender.
“Gazprom did such job previously too by ‘snatching’ the drilling job of Srikail-4 and Bakhrabad-10 from BAPEX. Though BAPEX was all set to initiate drilling of the wells, finally they were handed over to Gazprom for drilling,” the officials lamented.
They said, Gazprom carried out a 10-well drilling programme at a total cost of US$193.5 million, with an average drilling cost of $19.3 million per well.
The cost of drilling wells by Gazprom is almost thrice the cost of drilling any development well by the BAPEX, which ranges between $6.0-7.0 million per well.
The quality of drilling carried out by Gazprom is not up to the mark, the officials said, adding the production from the Gazprom-drilled wells is also less than expected.
When contacted, Professor Ijaz Hossain of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) argued that the government should not continue awarding Gazprom the drilling jobs without evaluating the
Russian firm’s previous performance.
“The government should award such drilling job through tender as gas fields are public property,” said Prof Ijaz, also an energy expert.
But Gazprom’s drilling has been faulty as natural gas production from four of its previously drilled 10 onshore gas wells were shut within several months of finishing the job, claimed a BAPEX official requesting not to be named.
BAPEX had to carry out ‘work-over’ to remove post-drilling faults in Titas-21 and Shahbazpur-4 gas wells, which were previously drilled by Gazprom, to re-initiate gas production at Bapex’s costs.
The state-run gas firm has also planned to do the same on two more onshore gas wells Begumganj-3 and Semutang-6 which were drilled by Gazprom but remained shut due to ‘faulty’ drilling, said the official.
Despite previous ‘faulty’ drillings by Gazprom, an influential quarter is active again to award the Russian firm more drilling programmes keeping BAPEX idle, said the BAPEX official without mentioning the name of the quarter.
“Gazprom is now eyeing to get the drilling jobs of Bhola north and Shahbazpur east gas fields too in addition to its already awarded job, which BAPEX had planned previously to drill,” the official alleged.
“We had done everything like readying of roads and purchase of necessary material to initiate drilling in these two gas fields,” said the BAPEX official.
“If we were given nod to carry out the drilling, we would be able to initiate it by January 2017,” he said. But BAPEX is yet to get the nod, he lamented.
The government should at the same time make it clear why it was interested again to award drilling jobs to Gazprom without tender depriving BAPEX, professor Izaj said.
“Had there been open bidding, the government could save at least one-fourth of the costs the government incurred for drilling five onshore gas wells by any reputed international firms,” said Professor M Tamim, a former special assistant to the chief of caretaker government.
Gazprom never took part in the country’s bidding rounds for oil and gas exploration. It is the first foreign company to operate in Bangladesh on a contract basis.
