The state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) and Russia's state-owned Gazprom are set to sort out modalities next month on constitution of a proposed joint venture (JV) for oil and gas exploration, a top official has said.
A high-powered team from Gazprom will be visiting Dhaka by mid-February and hold discussions with government high-ups including the officials of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) and Petrobangla in this connection, he has added.
Last week, Petrobangla Chairman Istiaque Ahmed invited Gazprom International Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Valeriy Gulev for holding the discussions.
The visit of the Russian team will be a follow-up to the trip of Mr Gulev in July last year when he expressed the company's interest to form the JV during a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka.
During the meeting, Gazprom's top executive expressed strong interest in this initiative and its readiness to carry out comprehensive analysis and the required consultations at the earliest opportunity.
In addition to carrying out joint exploration onshore and offshore, Mr Gulev also proposed joint exploration for hydrocarbons in Myanmar under the proposed JV.
Gazprom has proposed to work with Bapex for exploration of hydrocarbons in the country's plain lands, hill tracts and offshore areas.
Earlier, top officials of Gazprom and top government officials of Bangladesh held a series of meetings for cooperation in oil and gas sector activities.
Bangladesh in September last year sought US$2 billion loan from Russia at an interest rate of less than 2.0 per cent to fund development of its onshore gas fields, the Petrobangla official said.
The country then sought the funds to drill 41 wells, comprising 13 development, 8 appraisal, 13 workover and 7 exploratory wells, in the Titas, Bankhrabad, Kamta, Bhola, Horipur, Koilashtila, Biani Bazar, Chittagong and Rashidpur gas fields.
It also wanted to build 12 gas processing plants at the fields, and 45 gas compression stations and generators, comprising 33 wellhead gas compressors, 10 gas generators, a fractionation plant and a gas compressor at fields operated by state-owned Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL).
Bangladesh seeks to carry out 2,570 km 2D and 3D seismic surveys in several onshore areas and build 511 kilometres (317 miles) of natural gas pipelines to link fields to domestic markets with the Russian fund.
Gazprom then expressed interest in drilling new wells and showed interest in building a natural gas pipeline from Shahbazpur to Khulna in the south, where there is currently no gas available.
It has recently completed a 10-well drilling programme costing around $193.5 million in state-run gas fields owned by three gas subsidiaries of Petrobangla as a drilling contractor.
It produced its first gas in Bangladesh on May 21, 2013 while testing the Srikail-3 onshore well in the Comilla field, and is the first foreign company to operate in Bangladesh on a contract basis.
Other international oil companies active in Bangladesh operate under production-sharing contracts or in joint ventures with Bapex.
Bangladesh has separately moved to build a 2,000 MW capacity nuclear power plant at Rooppur, about 132 miles north of Dhaka, with Russian help.
It inked a deal with Russian firm Rosatom for a $500 million loan on January 15, 2013 to complete pre-construction works for the first 1,000 MW phase.
The loan has an interest rate of Libor plus 1.0 per cent and is repayable over 10 years, with a five-year grace period.
Bangladesh is currently grappling with an acute gas crisis, with supply hovering around 2,460 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) against demand for around 3,000 mmcfd.
azizjst@yahoo.com
Bapex, Gazprom set to fix JV modalities to explore oil, gas
M Azizur Rahman | Published: January 11, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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