So far Bangladesh has been just sitting on its vast unexplored and unexploited maritime resources within its territorial sea as well as the 200 nautical miles (nm) of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It has also its sovereign rights over the continental shelf that extends up to 350 nm. Notably, 1 nautical mile is approximately equivalent to 1.5 miles or 1.85 kilometers (km). That means despite a small land area to sustain a disproportionately large population, Bangladesh has at least a sizeable maritime zone to turn to. And the time had never been so critical as now to re-examine in a fresh light the immense possibilities that our maritime resources hold. We would at the moment concentrate on the undersea fossil energy resources.
But this does not mean that other non-living and living resources including deep seaports, ecotourism, fisheries, marine biotechnology, etc., have less potential. However, of late, the nation has tumbled to a new reality. It is about its extreme vulnerability to disruptions in the global energy supply lines, thanks to the energy shock attributable to the latest war in the oil-producing Middle East. It is not that the governments that came before the incumbent one were not aware of Bangladesh's vulnerability on the energy issue. Unfortunately, the last political government that ruled the country for more than a decade and a half devised an energy policy that was totally dependent on import knowing full well that it was unsustainable. In fact, after 2006, no serious effort was made from the governments to explore fresh gas fields in the country. The governments in question relied mainly on the import of fuel oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as it was easier than going for the hard work of exploring and exploiting our own fossil energy resources lying under the ground and the sea. As it involved a lot of cash transactions to import gas and oil from the Gulf countries, there were prospects of huge sums of kickbacks to line the pockets of those in power. In consequence, in just eight years, the government of the time imported only LNG worth Tk 2.45 trillion. Thus started the depletion of the state exchequer by a government that was supposed to protect it. So, far as exploration of the potential offshore fossil fuel reserves are concerned, the state-owned national oil and mineral company, Petrobangla, divided the offshore territory in the Bay of Bengal into 26 blocks following the resolution of our maritime boundary in 2012 (with Myanmar) and in 2014 (with India) respectively. Of those, 11are in the shallow and 15 in the deep sea. The post-2008 history of offshore contracting is marked by unfavourable fiscal terms and dispute over gas pricing. Also, changes in contract frameworks led to eventual retreat of the international oil companies (IOCs).
Following the Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC), which was drafted to accelerate offshore energy exploration in the Bay of Bengal, the US Multinational firm ConocoPhillips signed a PSC for two deep-sea blocks (Blocks 10 and 11). The company completed a 2D seismic survey but ultimately withdrew in 2014-15 over the price of gas that the company asked, which the government of the time refused. After resolution of the maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar and India by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), Indian joint venture, 'Oil and Gas Corporation S(ONGC) Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) signed PSCs for two shallow sea blocks (SS-04 and SS-09) in 2014. The Indian joint venture did not start work until 2019 but left as they reportedly could not find gas in one well while the other block they did not go for drilling. Meanwhile, the Australian firm Santos Ltd and Singapore-based KrisEnergy formed a joint venture to explore the shallow block SS-11, while South Korea's Posco Daewoo Corporation was awarded the deep-sea block DS-12 in 2017. These contracts too fell through as the Australian and Singaporean companies left after reportedly assuming losses. The Korean company, too, withdrew since the government did not agree to their request for gas price hike. Following the failures to contract out the offshore gas blocks, in 2023, the Bangldesh Offshore Model PSC 2023 was approved. This model permitted a higher annual cost recovery ceiling and linked gas prices to the international Brent crude market. But despite aggressive marketing for 24 offshore blocks to attract 55 global energy giants, the response of the IOCs was lukewarm. However, the American multinational ExxonMobil showed its interest in the deep-sea Block-15 and submitted its proposal accordingly, but the government rejected it. The interim government that assumed power following July uprising of 2024, also invited bidding from IOCs. But again they showed little interest considering perhaps the short tenure of the interim admin. It is now believed that the incumbent BNP-led elected government would not waste time to exploit offshore energy resources. In this connection, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on May 7 in principle gave approval to the framework for offshore oil and gas exploration, titled the 'Bangladesh Offshore Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC) 2026'. It is hoped that the barren era of the last two decades would now be over. The power, energy and mineral resources minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku is learnt to have informed that soon international tender would be floated for offshore energy exploration in the Bay of Bengal. Of the country's total 29TCF of gas reserves, 22.11 TCF has already been exploited. That leaves us with 7.63 TCF which can support the country for the next 12 years assuming a usage rate of 1,700 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd). So before the existing gas reserves are emptied, an all-out effort has to be made to discover new energy deposits in the Bay.
The government is learnt to have started executing short-term workover/ drilling programmes such as deepening of select wells in the onshore Titas field to immediately push more gas into the national grid. Alongside necessary short-term steps, long-term measures should be aggressive expansion of domestic gas exploration, diversification of supply sources (for import), exploitation of nuclear energy potential as well as harvest of the country's abundant tropical sunshine. More than a grand strategy, what we need most at the moment is a set of selfless and dedicated leadership as policymakers to resolve all our issues including energy. That is how Japan, for instance, got industrialised without having much natural resources including energy.
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