Anisul Islam Noor: An influential group within the Energy Division is lobbying in favour of a Russian company to get the contracts of some gas wells without floating international tender despite the company’s poor performance in the past. The group has been putting pressure on state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (BAPEX) to award contracts of two gas wells to Gazprom, a Russian company, without calling tenders. The wells are at Shahbazpur Gas Field in Bhola. Sources said, there is allegation of poor performance against Gazprom in the past. Gas production at five out of 10 wells was stopped within a few months of the completion of drilling, as some technical glitches were discovered. So, if these gas wells are again awarded to Gazprom, it will not be good decision, BAPEX official said conditioning anonymity. On April 26 in 2012, the government awarded two contracts to the Russian company bypassing tenders for drilling 10 wells at different onshore fields to increase gas supply by 22.5 crore cubic feet a day. But the expensive venture yielded 8.7 crore cubic feet of natural gas only a day, leaving five wells out of production. Gazprom charged approximately Tk 154.5 crore on average to drill each of the 10 gas wells. BAPEX and Bangaldesh Gas Fields Limited have already spent over Tk 100 crore to overhaul two of the five wells which went out of production in a few months after Gazprom drilled them, said officials. A similar budget would have to be allocated to overhaul three other wells drilled by Gazprom, they said. BAPEX earlier rejected the unsolicited proposal from Gazprom at a board meeting held on July 30 citing the ground that Gazprom charges more than double what BAPEX charges for the same task, according to the meeting minutes. The meeting was also told that Gazprom charges 25 per cent higher than even that of what other foreign companies charge for drilling each gas well. Instead, BAPEX recommended that Gazprom should participate in the bidding process for 13 exploratory wells to be drilled over the next two years. Asked by the energy division for its opinion on Gazprom’s proposal, BAPEX board made the decision and recommendation. BAPEX sent the opinion early this month to the energy division saying that awarding the jobs to Gazprom would demoralise BAPEX officials. A BAPEX official on condition of anonymity said that there was also pressure on BAPEX from government high-ups to engage Gazprom for development of Shahbazpur gas field and other potential structures in Bhola. When asked, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid told The New Nation on Sunday that he was not aware of what BAPEX was thinking about drilling wells at Shahbazpur. He also said that he had not received any file about Gazprom’s proposals. At the meeting, BAPEX board was also informed that on December 6, 2014 Chinese company Sinopec was awarded a project to drill five similar wells at a price of Tk 116 crore per well. Besides, BAPEX can drill a gas well using rigs, manpower and other resources of foreign companies at Tk 100 crore to Tk 110 crore. Under a government crash programme, BAPEX will drill 10 exploration wells, three production wells and three work-over wells to overhaul old gas wells, using its own resource, over the next two years, according to an energy division plan. Now, all the gas production companies in public and private sector together supply approximately 2750 mmcfd of natural gas a day against a demand for more than 3500mmcfd.
