Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Wednesday sought Russian cooperation, particularly Gazprom’s help, in hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay.
“We believe, Gazprom’s help will play an effective role in utilising the opportunities created by ITLOS verdict in Bangladesh territory in the Bay of Bengal,” she said while inaugurating a two-day international conference, titled `Oil and Gas Exploration Technologies’ at the Dhaka University.
State-owned hydrocarbon agency Petrobangla, Russian Gazprom and Dhaka University jointly organised the conference attended by students and teachers from different local and foreign universities in Russia and Central Asia.
Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique, Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander Nikolayev, Bangladesh Ambassador in Moscow Saiful Haque, Petrobangla Chairman Dr Hussain Monsur and Gazprom Director Advisor Eduard S Shevchenko also spoke at the function.
The call for Russian help in hydrocarbon exploration came from the Foreign Minister at a time when the state-owned Petrobangla is in a process to receive bids from international oil companies (IOCs) to award a number of deep sea gas blocks.
Earlier, Petrobagla awarded contracts of drilling 10 wells in different gas fields to Gazprom without any international tender.
Dipu Moni said that during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Moscow this year, a number of cooperation deals were signed between the two nations. “We’ve identified number of areas of cooperation and now we’re working on those.”
Through those deals, she said, a new horizon of cooperation between Petrobangla and Gazprom has also been created in the field of hydrocarbon exploration. Gazprom’s experience and technological advancement in this field is recognised all over the world, she added.
The Foreign Minister said that the ITLOS verdict has established Bangladesh’s rights in the Bay of Bengal and the opportunities created through this verdict in the field of oil, gas and other mineral resources exploration would have to be utilised.
“We’ve to utilise the opportunities for the sake of our own development,” she said adding that now Bangladesh needs modern and appropriate technologies and Russia has come forward to extend its hand in this regard.
Dipu Moni mentioned that the building of a nuclear power plant was a 50-year-old dream for Bangladesh which is now on the way to reality with the Russian help.
She appreciated the organisers for their initiative to organise the conference saying that it would build a bridge between the experts of the two nations through sharing their experiences.
Dhaka University Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique said his university is planning to open two more departments on nuclear engineering and disaster management to create necessary manpower to deal with these subjects.
Russian Ambassador Alexander Nikolayev said the deals between Gazprom and Petrobangla will play a vital role in bringing energy security in the region.
Bangladesh Ambassador in Moscow Saiful Haque said Gazprom is keen to become more involved in gas exploration, pipeline construction and also in gas distribution in Bangladesh. He noted that some more offers from Gazprom are now under consideration of the government.
Gazprom Director Advisor Eduard S Shevchenko said his company is ready to extend help to provide opportunity to Bangladeshi young students and researchers to study in Russian universities.
Source: UNB Connect