Foreign firms to bid for gas drilling, survey by Dec

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M Azizur Rahman
The government will invite foreign companies to bid for drilling six onshore wells and carry out 3,100-line kilometre seismic survey in state-owned gas fields by December, said a senior energy ministry official.
He said Petrobangla is now short-listing the foreign companies from among those which have submitted expression of interest (EoI) to carry out these works to be completed on a 'fast-track.'
Some 44 international companies, including from US, UK, Australia, Russia, Canada, France, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, Oman and India, have submitted EoIs in October to drill wells and conduct 2-D surveys.
"We are now scrutinisng the EoIs meticulously," said a senior Petrobangla official.
He said the short-listing of the companies would be completed by mid-December.
"The fast-track work would ensure that gas output from the wells hit the national grid by 2012 next," said Petrobangla chairman Dr Hussain Monsur.
He said the whole process would be completed maintaining transparency and accountability to the maximum level.
The government will bear the costs of the drillings and seismic surveys, Petrobangla chairman added.
Petrobangla expects a daily output of 25 million cubic feet of gas from each well on completion of the drillings.
Of the six wells - four will be drilled in Titas gas field, owned by Petrobangla's subsidiary
Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd., one in Rashidpur gas field owned by another subsidiary Sylhet Gas Fields Company Ltd.
The well to be worked over is also in Rashidpur gas field.
The selected foreign contractors will survey four onshore state-owned gas blocks 3, 6, 8 and 11.
They will be given two working seasons to complete the 2-D seismic survey and submit the analysed data to Petrobangla.
This is for the first time the government had opened state-owned gas fields to foreign companies.
The capacity constraints of the lone state-owned gas exploration company -- Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) - forced the government to hire foreign firms to drill and survey state-owned gas fields.
Bapex suggested hiring foreign companies, as what the company said, its two age-old rigs are booked until December 2011 and capable of conducting survey of only 300-line km per year.
The result of the 'fast-track' activities would help ease the energy supply crunch, the Petrobangla top official hoped.
The country's overall gas production is now hovering around 1980-mmcfd with a daily shortfall of around 250 mmcfd.