The government has deferred the signing of contracts with US oil company
ConocoPhillips and Indian ONGC Videsh for oil and gas exploration in
three shallow sea blocks for indefinite period due to ongoing political
unrest, officials said.
On Thursday, the energy division asked Petrobangla, the state-run Oil,
Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation, to suspend the contract signing
with Conoco scheduled for today, they said.
Energy Division secretary Md Mozammel Haq Khan on Sunday told New Age,
‘We have completed all the formalities much earlier. Now we are waiting
for a peaceful time for signing the contracts since these are some
international affairs.’
He did not give a specific date for the occasion.
Mozammel also said that the contracts with ONGC would be signed after signing the contract with Conoco.
When asked, he said that the government had no legal obligations in signing the contracts now as it was not a policy decision.
On November 24, the energy division asked Petrobangla to issue letters
asking the authorities concerned to sign contract with Conoco on
December 2.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party led alliance has been enforcing strikes and
blockades demanding caretaker government for holding national polls. In
recent days, the opposition agitation became violent.
Meanwhile, the government approved the proposals of Conoco for oil and
gas exploration in the shallow sea block 7 and ONGC Videsh for the
shallow sea blocks 4 and 9 under the Model Production Sharing Contract
2012.
The shallow sea block 7 is adjacent to a deep sea block 11 where the
Conoco is now conducting oil and gas exploration under PSC 2008 with
another block 10.
According to the summary of the bid proposal, Conoco will conduct 2,350
line-kilometre two dimensional seismic survey and 500 square kilometre
three dimensional seismic survey over shallow-sea block 7 and would
drill one well in eight years with a $40 million investment.
The ONGC also proposed to conduct 2,847 line-kilometre two dimensional
seismic survey and 300 square kilometre three dimensional seismic survey
over the shallow sea block 9 and would drill three wells in eight years
with $58 million investment.
On December 17, 2012, Petrobangla floated the international tender for
oil and gas exploration in nine shallow sea hydrocarbon blocks — 2, 3,
4, and 6 to 11 — and three deep-sea blocks 12, 16, and 21 in the Bay of
Bengal.
Later, being pursued by a number of IOCs, Petrobangla halted the bidding
process for deep sea blocks at that time and floated the tender again
on October 26, 2013 by amending the model PSC 2012 offering the IOCs
more stakes on the produces.
On May 28, Petrobangla also floated re-tender for oil and gas
exploration in six shallow sea blocks — 2, 3, 6, 8, 10 and 11 — in the
Bay.
In response, on July 29, only Santos-Krisenergy joint-venture submitted a bid for shallow sea hydrocarbon block 11.
Now Santos operates lone offshore hydrocarbon block 16 under production sharing contract. (source)