Anisul Islam Noor :
The government plans to strengthen the exploration capacity of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company (BAPEX) with the help of Russia.
Russia agreed to go for a joint venture with BAPEX to explore oil and gas in Bangladesh and abroad, initially in Myanmar’s offshore waters, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said.
Bangladesh is an energy hungry country and consumption of power and energy has been increasing about 12 percent each year with the expansion of economy here, BAPEX will have to keep an important role to meet up the energy demand, the minister said.
The state minister recently visited Russia and the decision was taken at a joint meeting there. Bangladesh delegation was led by the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid while Russian delegation was led by Gazprom’s managing director and chief executive officer Valery Gulev recently, the ministry sources said. BAPEX managing director Md Atiquzzaman also attended the meeting among others.
Nasrul said both the parties would launch the venture in a short time. The proposed joint venture would explore oil and gas in Bangladesh’s onshore and offshore areas, he said, adding that it would also participate in the international tenders for oil and exploration in the Bay of Bengal, particularly in Myanmar’s waters.
Officials said the joint venture would expand its interest in south and south-eastern Asia including Indian Ocean through participating in international tenders.
They said that a joint technical committee would complete the formalities for the joint venture.
At the meeting, the Russian counterparts pledged to assist the authorities concerned to help boost capacity of Bangladesh Petroleum Institute, which is assigned to develop human resources in hydrocarbon exploration, Nasrul Hamid said.
Bangladesh can be benefited through technology and experience of one of the world’s largest gas companies. The government would provide more drilling rigs and equipment to BAPEX to increase its capacity in oil and gas exploration activities through its own means, as well as the proposed joint venture, the minister said.
Earlier, the government drew severe criticism for allowing Gazprom to drill 10 wells at different gas fields owned by three state-run companies at about $195 million, some 2.5 times higher than the cost at which BAPEX could do it.
Later, in April this year, the government once again allocated five more drilling projects only to Gazprom putting aside BAPEX.
Experts said such decisions of the government had already rendered BAPEX workless.
They suggested the joint venture should not be allowed to explore oil and gas in the better-known structures while BAPEX should be allowed to carry out the onshore exploration activities, inside the country.
