Govt eyes giving drilling job to Gazprom depriving BAPEX

M Azizur Rahman | Published: September 19, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The government is eyeing to award well drilling job to foreign firms, keeping the drilling rigs of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX) idle, it has been alleged.
Sources said a vested quarter in the government is involved in awarding the job of drilling two more wells to Russian oil and gas major Gazprom at a high cost without any tender, depriving BAPEX, the country's lone oil and gas exploration firm.
Currently BAPEX does not have enough drilling job, approved by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR), to keep its four drilling rigs active after January 2015, they said.
Three of BAPEX drilling rigs will become idle after January 2015, following completion of drilling of Salda-4, Kailashtila-7 and Mobarakpur-1 wells. One drilling rig out of its total four rigs is already kept idle due to lack of work, a senior official said.
If no new drilling programme is approved by MPEMR, all the four rigs will become idle after January 2015 to at least early 2016, said sources.
Beyond the three drilling programmes, BAPEX has planned to drill Sundalpur-2 well. But the drilling programme is not yet approved by MPEMR.
If the Sundalpur-2 drilling is approved in a week, it will take more than one year at least until early 2016 to start drilling the well, as some necessary work, like - land filling and land development, will have to be carried out, they added.
Sources alleged a certain quarter in the government is active to award the drilling job of Srikail-4 and Bakhrabad-10 to Gazprom bypassing tender, under the Speedy Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) (Amendment) Act, 2012.
Gazprom is currently involved in a 10-well drilling programme at a total cost of US$193.5 million, with an average drilling cost of $19.3 million per well.
The cost for drilling wells by Gazprom is almost thrice the cost of drilling any development well by the state-owned BAPEX, which ranges between $6.0-7.0 million per well, said officials.
The quality of drilling carried out by Gazprom is not up to the mark. Production from the Gazprom-drilled wells is also less than expected, they also said.
Besides, natural gas production from the Gazprom-drilled Titas-21 has been suspended immediately after its start due to faulty drilling method, they alleged.
A senior MPEMR official, however, said Gazprom was awarded the 10-well drilling programme, as BAPEX had tight work schedule.
He also said the ministry is yet to take any decision on awarding drilling job of two more wells to Gazprom.
Another official said BAPEX has a plan to drill a total of 29 wells in onshore blocks in the next five years.
Of the 29 wells, the company will drill seven exploratory wells, 14 development wells and eight work-over wells until 2018, he said.
It will also conduct 1,800 kilometres 2D seismic survey, 1,950 square kilometres 3D seismic survey and 900 kilometres geographical survey in five years, as per the plan. The organisation submitted its five-year plan to MPEMR recently, following a request from the ministry.
"But it is just a plan, and nothing more. It was motivated and shown exaggeratedly to serve the purpose of a certain quarter," said a BAPEX official.
The planning does not have any significance, if any project is not awarded to Bapex, he concluded.
When contacted, Professor M Tamim of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) emphasised utilising the full potential of Bapex in drilling jobs.
The company is increasing its drilling capacity, and the expense of its drilling is less expensive than any international oil company, he also said.
Mr Tamim, who was the special assistant to chief adviser and looked after the energy issues during the 2007-08 caretaker government, also criticised awarding Gazprom the 10-well drilling programme at a high cost.
"It was meaningless, and just a waste of money," he spelled out.