BGFCL receives lone bid from US firm

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M Azizur Rahman
The US-based gas field blowout prevention firm - Boots & Coots - being the lone bidder has proposed to plug gas seepage at Titas gas field in Brahmanbaria district at a cost of US$10.7 million.
The cost offered by the firm is, however, almost three times higher than that the Petrobangla earlier negotiated with another US company - GSM - to stop Titas gas leakage, a senior Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) official said.
The state-owned Petrobangla negotiated with the GSM in May last to stop gas leakages of the Titas gas field at a cost of $3.74 million. The offer was turned down by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) as it was unsolicited one.
The GSM had extinguished the Tengratila gas field fire.
Failing to convince BB the urgency to clog the Titas gas seepage in line with the negotiation with the GSM Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL), the owner of Titas gas field, floated tender in June last seeking proposals from the internationally reputed companies.
Five foreign companies, including the GSM and another US firm BJ Services, purchased bid documents from the BGFCL.
None other than the Boots & Coots submitted their proposals within the timeframe of August 5 last, which was extended by a week from its previous schedule.
"The payment as demanded by the US firm in the proposal to stop Titas gas seepage is much higher than our expectation," a senior Petrobangla official admitted.
He, however, said the Boots & Coots is one of the world largest firm involved in well control both oil and gas across the globe.
It has experiences to drill over 1,000 relief wells around the world including those of Kuwait that were blown up during Iraq's invasion in Kuwait over a decade ago.
To discuss over the Boots & Coots offer a meeting was held at Petrobangla Monday.
The meeting discussed about options to reduce the Boots & Coots cost to stop the Titas gas seepage through providing manpower and equipment from the state-owned gas entities.