The government has approved multi-client survey across the entire sea to explore oil and gas in the Bangladesh part of the Bay of Bengal.
It is expected that the survey, which will help to know about oil and gas possibility in offshore areas, will start next winter, an energy division official said.
According to the energy division, the purchase cabinet committee approved a proposal for agreement with the Norwegian company TGS and France’s Schlumberger Consortium last month. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has also approved the proposal.
An official said, Petrobangla sent an award notice to TGS and France’s Schlumberger and also invited them to complete an agreement for multi-client survey on May 7. TGS-Schlumberger will sign a contract with Petrobangla soon.
A former senior official of Petrobangla said, multi-client survey is very essential as it can give an idea on the prospects of oil-gas in the Bay of Bengal. Seeing this, foreign companies show interest in offshore exploration. There are also various benefits to work.
“If such a survey is done, we will also realize actually what kind of resources we have in the sea,” he added.
He also said, ‘Although this survey does not provide any idea about the reserves of oil and gas, there is an idea about whether there is anything, and in which area.’
Energy division sources said, the main goal of multi-client survey is to survey a large area of the Bay of Bengal with a company before the tender.
Later, the company that got the exploration work through tender, would have to buy the results of the survey. As a result, the cost of the survey would come from the company. There will be no financial loss to the government. Rather, it will work with the successor.
Sources said, international tenders were called twice for multi-client surveys in 2015 and 2016. The Norwegian company TGS and France’s Schlumberger Consortium were the lowest bidders, but they did not get the job.
A committee formed in this regard also suggested giving the work to Schlumberger. Even though the matter was caught in various bureaucratic tangles, the obstacle is overcome.
An official of the energy division, on anonymity, said there is a powerful syndicate in the energy division. It stops most of the important work for commission.
“To meet the domestic demand, Bangladesh is importing costly LNG from the international market. If the country finds huge reserves in the Bay of Bengal, it can save a huge amount of money. Besides, the gas crisis will be overcome,” experts said.
In March 2012, and July 2014, in historic victories at the UN Maritime Tribunal, Bangladesh got 11,631 square kilometres and 19,467 square kilometres from Myanmar and India respectively. Offshore gas exploration can be a potential source of energy for Bangladesh. But since then, no exploration has literally been carried out to extract offshore gas resources.
With readjustment, the energy division has been divided into 26 blocks in the entire sea territory. However, work has begun in only 4 blocks.
Sources said, there are indications of vast reserves of oil and gas in Block D-12 in the deep sea, and Bangladesh could have a minimum of 5 prospective structures in the Bay of Bengal following the 2-D seismic survey of 1,580 sq kms in the area.
Badrul Imam, professor of geology at Dhaka University said, Bangladesh could still not start the survey in the sea due to lack of proper planning as well as due to vested interests. An artificial crisis has been created. Due to lack of new gas, the country is now importing LNG, which will cause additional pressure on the people.
He said, Bangladesh will have to come out of the control of slow-working and unauthorised interference in the management of its exploration work.
Bangabandhu had said that the gas in the country’s land is going to be done today or tomorrow. There will be no problem. But before that, the oil and gas of the sea will be lifted. He had also taken a few initiatives.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly pushed for offshore oil and gas exploration, but due to bureaucratic complications, results are not satisfactory.
After settling the dispute with Bangladesh, India and Myanmar have started extracting huge quantities of gas in their parts of the Bay of Bengal.Myanmar is exploring and drilling gas blocks. In 2016, Myanmar announced a gas production of 4 trillion cubic feet in Block Thalin-1. The gas lifting started from here.
Currently, more than 10 foreign companies are working for exploration in the number of 20 blocks in the sea of the Myanmar area.
On the other hand, India is expected to have reserves of about 50 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Krishna-Godavari Basin area of the Bay of Bengal. Indian state-owned ONGC, Gujarat Estate Petroleum Corporation and Private Group Reliance are conducting strong explorations in the area.
Petrobangla said, it can be increased for lifting of gas until 2020. Then it will be stable in 2024-25. After then, it will decrease.
According to Petrobangla, the demand will rise to 4,770 million cubic feet in 2024-25, whereas the production capacity will be 2,196 million cubic feet from the current gas fields in the country. In the next fiscal, the demand and production capacity will be 4,910 and 1,702 million cubic feet. In the same way, demand and production ratio will be 5,200 and 1,054 million cubic feet in 2028-29. Gradually, it will decrease, and if the new gas fields are not discovered during this period, gas production will be zero in 2041.
