UNB, Dhaka :
Despite poor performance of Russian mining company Gazprom in drilling new wells in Bangladesh, Petrobangla is pursuing a plan to award the company five more wells in three gas fields of the country, according to sources.
Gazprom placed an unsolicited offer to explore the wells to state-owned hydrocarbon corporation Petrobangla last week, and the latter has already formed a technical evaluation committee to assess the offer, said a senior official of the Energy Ministry.
“We’ve received the Gazprom offers on Thursday afternoon, just before leaving the office. That’s why I couldn’t make my time to go through the proposal,” the officials told UNB preferring not to be named.
Gazprom has offered a cost of about $95 million (equivalent to Tk 741 crore) at a cost rate of $19 million for each well which is just one million US dollar less than its previous offer for the drilling of 10 wells each.
The wells Gazprom has intended to drill are Srikail-4 under Bapex, Bakhrabad-10 under Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited (BGFCL) and Rashidpur- 9, 10 and 12.
The Russian mining company submitted its technical and financial offers to Petrobangla to drill the wells without any tender.
The sources also claimed that there is a positive signal from the government’s highest policymaking level to award the contract to Gazprom.
They added that Petrobangla has already forwarded the Gazprom offer along with the evaluation committee’s report to the Energy Division, seeking its consent on it.
Earlier in April, 2012, Gazprom was awarded an unsolicited contract of US$ 200 million to drill 10 wells at different gas fields.
But the Russian oil giant failed to execute its assignment within the stipulated time of 20 months. It also failed to increase the gas production as per the target of 200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from the 10 wells.
Gazprom was supposed to drill four wells in the large Titas gas field, two in Shahbazpur, and one each in Rashidpur, Srikail, Begumganj and Semutang.
Later, the timeline was extended up to December, 2014.
Petrobangla has been receiving an output of only 108 mmcfd from eight of the 10 wells which is almost half the amount mentioned in the contract.
Most senior officials at Petrobangla, Bapex and other gas field companies expressed their dissatisfaction over the poor performance of the Russian oil major in augmenting gas production while the country has a shortage of 500 mmcfd gas.
Besides, Gazprom’s cost of drilling was found to be highly inflated compared to that of state-owned Bapex in other gas fields.
Bapex spends only Tk 70 crore (equivalent to $ 8.97 million) on average to drill a well, while Gazprom charged $20 million a well.
Criticising Petrobangla’s move to entertain Gazprom’s unsolicited offer, energy expert and Head of the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) Prof Dr M Tamim said it is beyond understanding why the national hydrocarbon agency is moving ahead with such a disastrous proposal.
“We’re paying just double to Gazprom. In terms of both performance and cost, there’s no justification of entertaining Gazprom’s offer. This is completely out of line…,” he said.
Dr. Tamim, also former special assistant to the chief advisor of a caretaker government, said since the government is spending its own fund for the project, this drilling can easily be conducted by state-owned agencies at half for less than half the cost Gazprom is offering.
“Even Bapex can do the job at half of the Gazprom’s cost,” he said.
Despite poor performance of Russian mining company Gazprom in drilling new wells in Bangladesh, Petrobangla is pursuing a plan to award the company five more wells in three gas fields of the country, according to sources.
Gazprom placed an unsolicited offer to explore the wells to state-owned hydrocarbon corporation Petrobangla last week, and the latter has already formed a technical evaluation committee to assess the offer, said a senior official of the Energy Ministry.
“We’ve received the Gazprom offers on Thursday afternoon, just before leaving the office. That’s why I couldn’t make my time to go through the proposal,” the officials told UNB preferring not to be named.
Gazprom has offered a cost of about $95 million (equivalent to Tk 741 crore) at a cost rate of $19 million for each well which is just one million US dollar less than its previous offer for the drilling of 10 wells each.
The wells Gazprom has intended to drill are Srikail-4 under Bapex, Bakhrabad-10 under Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited (BGFCL) and Rashidpur- 9, 10 and 12.
The Russian mining company submitted its technical and financial offers to Petrobangla to drill the wells without any tender.
The sources also claimed that there is a positive signal from the government’s highest policymaking level to award the contract to Gazprom.
They added that Petrobangla has already forwarded the Gazprom offer along with the evaluation committee’s report to the Energy Division, seeking its consent on it.
Earlier in April, 2012, Gazprom was awarded an unsolicited contract of US$ 200 million to drill 10 wells at different gas fields.
But the Russian oil giant failed to execute its assignment within the stipulated time of 20 months. It also failed to increase the gas production as per the target of 200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from the 10 wells.
Gazprom was supposed to drill four wells in the large Titas gas field, two in Shahbazpur, and one each in Rashidpur, Srikail, Begumganj and Semutang.
Later, the timeline was extended up to December, 2014.
Petrobangla has been receiving an output of only 108 mmcfd from eight of the 10 wells which is almost half the amount mentioned in the contract.
Most senior officials at Petrobangla, Bapex and other gas field companies expressed their dissatisfaction over the poor performance of the Russian oil major in augmenting gas production while the country has a shortage of 500 mmcfd gas.
Besides, Gazprom’s cost of drilling was found to be highly inflated compared to that of state-owned Bapex in other gas fields.
Bapex spends only Tk 70 crore (equivalent to $ 8.97 million) on average to drill a well, while Gazprom charged $20 million a well.
Criticising Petrobangla’s move to entertain Gazprom’s unsolicited offer, energy expert and Head of the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Engineering of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) Prof Dr M Tamim said it is beyond understanding why the national hydrocarbon agency is moving ahead with such a disastrous proposal.
“We’re paying just double to Gazprom. In terms of both performance and cost, there’s no justification of entertaining Gazprom’s offer. This is completely out of line…,” he said.
Dr. Tamim, also former special assistant to the chief advisor of a caretaker government, said since the government is spending its own fund for the project, this drilling can easily be conducted by state-owned agencies at half for less than half the cost Gazprom is offering.
“Even Bapex can do the job at half of the Gazprom’s cost,” he said.
