Consultant to be appointed to prepare bid documents

FE Team | Published: September 23, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

M Azizur Rahman
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) will appoint a consultant to prepare documents for the planned international bidding for a fresh round of hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal.
"The consultant will prepare documents in line with international standard incorporating the financial, technical and legal aspects elaborately into those," a senior EMRD official told the FE.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has already agreed to provide monetary support for the consultancy services, he said.
"We have already held talks with the Manila-based lending agency in this regard," the EMRD official said further.
The consultant will also prepare the model production-sharing contract (PSC), which will be showcased before the international oil companies to entice them to the next bidding round titled, "Bangladesh offshore bidding round 2007."
After finalising the draft model PSC, the EMRD recently sought opinion from the ministries of finance, commerce and law and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on economic, legal and tax related issues.
The EMRD will soon seek expression of interest (EoI) from the international con sultants.
Considering the mounting gas demand across the country, the government has planned to float international tender for hydrocarbon exploration in the offshore blocks into the Bay of Bengal in 2007.
The EMRD has already dotted a total of 27 new offshore gas blocks in the Bay for hydrocarbon exploration under the new bidding round.
The government has planned for awarding these new gas blocks to the bidders by July 2008 after successful completion of the bidding round.
This will be the country's third round bidding for hydrocarbon exploration both onshore and offshore.
During the first round bidding in 1993 four onshore blocks of 12, 13, 14 and 22 and four offshore blocks of 15, 16, 17 and 18 were awarded to the international oil and gas companies.
In the second round bidding in 1997 gas block no 5, 7, 9 and 10 to the international oil and gas companies and block no 8 and 11 were awarded to the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (BAPEX).
Currently the government has eight PSCs signed with the IOCs for 10 blocks across the country.