Staff Reporter :
The government has signed a deal with India’s state-owned ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd to explore offshore shallow blocks 4 and 9 in the Bay of Bengal.
Senior Assistant Secretary for Energy and Mineral Resources Division Khadiza Naznin, Secretary of Petrobangla Imam Hossain, Secretary of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) Md Abdus Sabur, Head of Geo-Science and Business Development of ONGC Videsh Ltd NR Hazarika and Oil India Ltd General Manager (Geology), BD Asia Pacific, AJ Duggal signed the deals on behalf of their respective sides.
The deal signing ceremony was held in the office of Petrobangla, the state-owned Oil, Gas & Mineral Company of Bangladesh on Monday.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith attended the signing ceremonies as the chief guest. Prime Minister’s Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu and Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pankaj Saran were also present.
Deals were scheduled to be penned in December last year, but political turmoil in Bangladesh held back the signing, sources said. The Petrobangla invited bids last year under the model Production Sharing Contract (PSC) 2012 for hydrocarbon exploration in two shallow water blocks — SS-04 and SS-09 in the Bay of Bengal.
Petrobangla officials said that two more agreements would be signed this month with the US based oil and gas company ConocoPhillips for the shallow-water Block 7 and Santos-Criss Energy for Block 11.
India’s ONGC had offered to invest $58.4m to conduct 2D-seismic survey of 2,700 line-km, 3D-seismic survey of a 200sq-km area and drill two wells in block 4. The government’s profit-sharing ratio will be 60%-85% for gas and 70%-90% for oil.
It had also offered to invest $86.4m to conduct 2D survey of 2,850 line-km, 3D survey of a 300sq-km area in block 9 and drill three wells.
