BANGLADESH GOES THIRD ROUND BIDDING SOON

“We are planning to go for third round of bidding for the offshore, especially for block 19, 20 and 21,” the State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources AKM Mosharraf Hossain, told reporters Saturday in Dhaka.

At least five companies from Thailand, Malaysia, China and the US have recently expressed interest in conducting survey for finding gas in the deep sea, officials at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources confirmed.

The companies have shown interest for exploring gas from the offshore as both Myanmar and India recently discovered gas in the Bay, officials noted.

“If we do not go for third round bidding, the companies which have shown interest would not come up for investment,” the Minister said, adding “India and Myanmar have already explored gas in the same line in Bay and we think that there is gas in the Bangladesh part of the sea.”

The ministry will collect the latest terms and conditions on PSC’s from different countries to set terms and conditions for off-shore blocks, he noted.

The country was divided into 23 blocks for hydrocarbon exploration after the government had amended the Petroleum Act in 1993.

Sources said no new field was discovered during 1997 to 2003 and only two gas fields at Srikail and Bangura under block 9 were discovered in 2004, although the present gas reserve, around 14 trillion cubic feet, might be extracted by 2012 to 2014.

However, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) offers financial assistance to Bangladesh in development of gas sector.

According to a document presented by a visiting ADB fact-finding mission, the ADB will provide a loan of US$215 millions for seven projects for gas sector development of the country.

But the government will have to inject another $198 millions in local currency for implementation of the projects. The total cost of gas sector development project (GSDP) will be $413 millions.(End/si)