SETTLEMENTS of maritime disputes ushered a new horizon for Bangladesh to unlock the ‘blue economy’ potentials but other than setting up of a small ‘cell’ under the Energy Division, no substantial progress has been made over the past three years, Media reports said.
The maritime dispute with Myanmar was settled on December 18, 2013 while that of with India on July 8, 2014.Bangladesh won 19,467 square kilometres out of 25,602 sq km disputed area from Indian claimed area in the Bay of Bengal. The country sustained a claim to 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone and territorial rights in the Bay of Bengal against Myanmar’s claim.
After a long break of about three years since the settlement, the Blue Economy Cell (BEC) was set up in January this year on a very temporary basis under the Energy Division. But still BEC remains merely a small organ of the Energy Division headed by a director general having only six officials and employees from different organisations appointed on temporary basis.
Terming it a frustrating situation, energy expert BUET Professor Dr M Tamim said this happened possibly because of the government’s lack of interest in exploration of resources including oil, gas and fisheries in the bay, as per the report.
There is no resonable explanation as to why the government could not take any decision on multi-client seismic survey in offshore areas. Without acquiring seismic data, it’s impossible to make any assessment on our resources in the Bay of Bengal. Official sources said the government formed a 25-member ‘Coordination Committee on Sea Resources Exploration and Fair Management’ headed by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office on August 20 in 2014 for taking up strategic planning in this regard.
The committee, comprised of senior secretary, secretaries and top executives of different ministries and important organisations, were supposed to sit in every three months, prepare strategies and monitor implementations of the government’s decision on the issue. But nobody of the Blue Economy Cell could recognise or confirm whether the committee sat for any meeting in last three years.
To give one some idea of the natural resources of the Bay one has to look at India’s estimates for its natural gas reserves. According to their data almost 18.645 trillion cubic feet of gas– which is greater than our entire primary recoverable stock of gas, is available in the Bay of Bengal within their natural boundaries. We have not even dug a dozen wells in the Bay of Bengal–while we have dug barely over 70 wells since 1914 in total Thailand has dug over 2200.
So the potential for reserves exceeding over 30 trillion cubic feet–or over twice our known proven reserves exists in our part of the Bay of Bengal. If we want to rely on ourselves and not import oil for electricity, then natural gas is a most important resource. Since our electricity generation is expected to be over 34 000 MW by 2030–natural gas, alongwith clean coal and nuclear are our best bets against persistent loadshedding and reduced economic growth. Energy produces growth–to become a middle income nation by 2021,and to continue to grow onwards, we need gas. Hence the need for rapid exploration of the Bay of Bengal is important to add the contribution to blue economy to our national development.
