The production sharing contracts hat the government has signed with foreign companies to explore and extract oil, gas and mineral resources breach the constitution as confidentiality clauses in the contracts stop people from accessing information on the ongoing process of exploration and production, according to some legal experts.
Article 26 of the PSC 2008, signed with the ConocoPhilips requires that all data and information which its collect in the course of its exploration and production work including information on all costs that the company incurs should be kept confidential.
The contracts provides just two exceptions to this prohibition.
First, the company is allowed to provide information so that its 'employees, affiliates, consultants, sub-contractors or others' can work efficiently in undertaking petroleum operations but even then the company must obtain confidentiality undertakings from them.
The second exception relates to Petrobangla which is allowed to disclose certain information if the contract area is 'relinquished' by the company.
Legal experts claimed that such a provision is a violation of the constitution.
The constitution recognises the citizens as the ultimate owner of the country's mineral resources but the contract is preventing people from knowing the details of how the resources are being explored, extracted and sold, they told New Age.
'This is totally inconsistent. People have the right to know everything that the government and international oil and gas companies are doing with their resources,' said Abdullah-Al-Faruque, a teacher of law in Chittagong University.
Dhaka University law teacher Asif Nazrul said that it was against good governance and the rule of law not to publish this kind of information
He said that the refusal of the government to provide such information to the public could be challenged in the High Court as it contradicts the constitutional provisions.
Till now Bangladesh has signed 12 PSCs with foreign companies.
Asif and Abdullah referred to Article 143 (1) of the constitution, which states that 'all minerals and other things of value underlying any land of Bangladesh … [or] underlying the ocean within the territorial waters, or the ocean over the continental shelf, of Bangladesh…' shall be 'vested in people of Bangladesh.'
They also pointed to Article 7(1) which stipulates, 'All powers in the Republic belong to the people, and their exercise on behalf of the people shall be effected only under, and by the authority of, this constitution.'
The articles clearly state that people of the country are the owners of the country's mineral resources, contended Asif and Abdullah.
All bits of information which are made confidential in the contract is a matter of public interest and the Right to Information Act 2009 ensures access of citizens to such information, Asif said.
On July 19, the Energy Division rejected an application by New Age seeking a copy of the production sharing contract which the government had recently signed with ConocoPhillips, the gas purchase and sales agreement and side letter agreement signed with Santos, and the PSC and the GPSA signed with Chevron.
Experts and activists have for 15 years been demanding the publication of all production sharing contracts, gas purchase and sales agreements and supplementary agreements between the government and Petrobangla with foreign companies.
The energy ministry has not placed any signed contract in the parliament although the parliamentary standing committee on the power, energy and mineral resources ministry has on several occasions said that signed PSCs would be placed in the parliament.
Source : New Age
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