India’s public sector oil-and-gas behemoth ONGC is on way to be given three shallow gas blocks in Bangladesh for exploration.
That includes the country’s first discovered offshore gas field Kutubdia, next month.
The production sharing contract is likely to be signed not before September but an initial agreement on the blocks may be done this month, a senior official of ONGC Videsh Limited, a subsidiary of the state-owned firm, said.
ONGC Videsh will be awarded blocks SS-04 and SS-09 as they were the sole bidders. It will also have the right to explore Bangladesh’s first discovered offshore gas field, Kutubdia.
The gas field was discovered in 1977 and has recoverable reserves of around 45.5 billion cubic feet, according to Petrobangla estimates.
Kutubdia was offered under a “special package” as it was tagged to SS-04 in the bid process.
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company will have a 10 per cent carried interest stake in all the three blocks. The area of these blocks ranges from 4,463 sq km to 7,692 sq km at water depths of 3-200 metres.
Apart from ONGC and US-based ConocoPhillips all global majors that were keen during the pre-bidding stage had backed out of the bidding, citing lack of incentives to cover the offshore investment risks.
Bangladesh has disputed maritime boundaries with both India and Myanmar.
ONGC Videsh officials are upbeat that they will do justice to the Bangladesh blocks because they have extensive experience of exploring in eastern and northeastern India.
Though their experience of striking oil or gas in West Bengal has been dismal, the record in Tripura and Assam has been brilliant.
The officials said depending on the gas find, ONGC could invest in setting up power, fertiliser and petrochemical plants in Bangladesh.
Recently ONGC teamed up with Tripura government to set up a power company that built and will operate the 726-MW Palatana gas-fired power plant in Tripura.
Bangladesh helped the project by allowing transportation of all heavy equipment through Chittagong-Asuganj route.
Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar has promised Bangladesh more than 100 MW of power from this project but the proposal is sitting in Delhi which has to clear it.
Source: Bd news24