Anisul Islam Noor :
Petrobangla is finalising assessment of assets and liabilities of Chevron Bangladesh so that the government can take over the responsibility of the US oil giant firm soon.
Officially the government will submit an expression of interest (EoI) to Chevron to acquire its stakes in Bangladesh, said a senior official of the Energy Division.
“Petrobangla has assigned Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL) and the Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd (SGFL) to hire an independent consultant for the assessment,” Chairman of Petrobangla Istiaque Ahmad told The New Nation on Monday.
He added that the BGFCL and SGFL had been asked to jointly assess and file a report to the Petrobangla soon. Because the assessment report is very important before quoting price for acquiring the company, he said.
If Bangladesh purchases the stakes, it would be the second such incident of take over after August 9, 1975 when the then President Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had taken over all shares of five onshore gas fields from Shell Oil Company at a cost of only around Great Britain pound (GBP) 4.4 million.
Chevron Bangladesh has separate production sharing contracts (PSCs) with Petrobangla for three of its gas fields and none of which would expire before 2028, the Petrobangla chairman said.
When asked about its sale Plan, a Chevron spokesman said, “Our asset sales programme is not focused on Asia, it is across Chevron’s global portfolio. This involved the sale of selected assets across New Zealand, Canada and the United States in the last year.” Regarding Bangladesh, he said, “We can confirm that Chevron has been in commercial discussions about our interests in Bangladesh.”
“At this stage, no decision has been made to sell our interests. We will only proceed if we can realise attractive value for Chevron,” he added.
When asked about any progress on sale, the Chevron spokesperson said: “Chevron does not comment on commercial discussions.”
Chevron is the largest among the international oil companies (IOCs) currently operating in Bangladesh, producing more than half of the country’s total natural gas output.
The US firm is currently producing around 1540 mmcfd of natural gas from three of its onshore gas fields Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulavi Bazar located in blocks 12, 13 and 14 respectively, in the northeastern Sylhet region, which accounts for around 56 per cent of the country’s total supply, according to Petrobangla’s latest data as on November 27.
