Reza Mahmud :
While the country is facing enormous crisis of gas, the authorities concern is yet to conduct a geological survey to discover probable reserves of the natural resources in our sea, say the experts.
The authorities showed less interest of discovering probable reserves even after seven years of conquest of the sea.
They said that the whole world is now suffering from gas and other natural energies shortages due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The experts think that buying of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from abroad costing 25 to 30 USD per cubic meter is more costly than exploring the resources in offshore or onshore in our own boundary.
When contacted, Professor Badrul Imam, former Geology Professor of the Dhaka University and representative of the civic voice for strengthening Bapex, told The New Nation, “About 10 years after conquest of the maritime boundary there is even no survey conducted in the Bay of Bengal which is a negligence of the government.”
The Professor said the government is buying LNG from foreign countries by USD 25 to 30 per cubic meter but avoid to sign contract with gas exploring companies fixing its price USD 5.5 for this.
The expert said that the energy explorer corporations used to drill costing enormous money with huge risks.
If they discover any reserve of gas or oil, the country will get fifty percent of those resources.
“So, it may not be risk of higher costing if we sign memorandum of understanding with such a corporation for exploring gas reserve in our sea,” the Professor said.
The expert said that there is a confusion about interferences obstacles to searching gas in the sea.
“There are multi-million dollar business in LNG here.,” the expert said.
He asked the government to take immediate initiatives on exploring gas from the sea.
When contacted, Dr M Tamim, Professor of the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) told The New Nation, “There are huge probability of remaining enormous gas reserves in our maritime boundary as the neighboring Myanmar and India found lots of the resources near our areas. Our Sangu gas field also a showed a sign of get such more resources in the sea.”
The Professor said that the government has invited tenders two times but failed to conduct a survey finally.
Contacted, Energy expert Professor Dr. Ijaz Hossain told The New Nation, “It has been delayed a long to conduct a geological survey in the sea which created uncertainty over remaining the gas in our land.”
Meanwhile, Nasrul Hamid, MP
State Minister of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resource could not be reached while trying to get his comments in this regard.
Besides, Nazmul Ahsan, Chairman of Petrobangla also could not be reached in this regard.
A U.N. tribunal has awarded Bangladesh nearly four-fifth of an area sprawling over 25,000 sq km in the Bay of Bengal, ending a dispute over a sea border with India.
The verdict, binding on both countries, opens the way for Bangladesh to explore for oil and gas in the Bay of Bengal, the site of important energy reserves.
The award brings to an end an arbitration process Bangladesh initiated in 2009, over disputes with Myanmar and India.
The Myanmar dispute was settled in 2012 after arbitration at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.
