AMID growing energy crisis, Bangladesh urgently needs massive investment from international oil and gas companies because of the financial and technological constraints of the state-owned firms. Thus the government should have to adopt an integrated policy framework involving local and foreign firms for accelerating drilling activities both in onshore and offshore fields, say energy experts.
Voicing concern, they warned that international companies might take place if the local firms continue to perform poorly. So the domestic gas exploration has to be improved significantly, otherwise, the country has to import huge gas from abroad at the cost of national exchequer. They said India has been conducting massive drilling in our bordering areas and found huge gas and wells, while Bangladesh conducted a very few drilling inside its territory and there is no success.
Media reports in national dailies on Sunday said that the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company’s (BOPEX) failure to do its job properly prompted the government to take decision to award contracts to foreign companies for exploration and production of gas in Bangladesh. The government reportedly has been pursuing a policy to engage both the state-owned and foreign companies in parallel ways to explore and produce hydrocarbons across the country.
In the wake of allegations that the government overlooked BAPEX while awarding a contract to Russia’s Gazprom to drill wells on the Bhola-North gas field, and that too, at a higher quote, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that Petrobanla and BAPEX even could not prepare its own work-plan in many places; it had just failed to identify proper locations for drilling. This is frustrating.
It is to be mentioned that Petrobangla is the state-owned principal organisation in the country’s hydrocarbon exploration, production and marketing in both upstream and downstream while BAPEX has been its subordinate body engaged in exploration and production activities.
To explore for gas reserves by more experienced foreign experts is nothing wrong. The question is do we have a competent government to enter into deals to the best interest of the country? Everybody knows of plunderers whose only interest is to plunder money and keep it abroad.
Voicing concern, they warned that international companies might take place if the local firms continue to perform poorly. So the domestic gas exploration has to be improved significantly, otherwise, the country has to import huge gas from abroad at the cost of national exchequer. They said India has been conducting massive drilling in our bordering areas and found huge gas and wells, while Bangladesh conducted a very few drilling inside its territory and there is no success.
Media reports in national dailies on Sunday said that the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company’s (BOPEX) failure to do its job properly prompted the government to take decision to award contracts to foreign companies for exploration and production of gas in Bangladesh. The government reportedly has been pursuing a policy to engage both the state-owned and foreign companies in parallel ways to explore and produce hydrocarbons across the country.
In the wake of allegations that the government overlooked BAPEX while awarding a contract to Russia’s Gazprom to drill wells on the Bhola-North gas field, and that too, at a higher quote, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that Petrobanla and BAPEX even could not prepare its own work-plan in many places; it had just failed to identify proper locations for drilling. This is frustrating.
It is to be mentioned that Petrobangla is the state-owned principal organisation in the country’s hydrocarbon exploration, production and marketing in both upstream and downstream while BAPEX has been its subordinate body engaged in exploration and production activities.
To explore for gas reserves by more experienced foreign experts is nothing wrong. The question is do we have a competent government to enter into deals to the best interest of the country? Everybody knows of plunderers whose only interest is to plunder money and keep it abroad.
