BAPEX deserves serious support

Successive governments in Bangladesh have been facing criticism for not exploiting the national wealth judiciously.But it appears policy-makers are not interested in listening at all, even after experiencing costly disasters -- in terms of the gas resources and the environment -- at the hands of foreign companies, such as the Magurchara and the Tengratila accidents. The fact that outsiders charge two to three times more than what national organisations spend to do the same job also does not seem to persuade the government to seriously support BAPEX, the national oil, gas exploration and development organization that has a fairly good track record for gas production, such as in the Salda river, Fenchuganj, Shahbajpur and most recently at Sundalpur. BAPEX has also been carrying out seismic surveys and drilling wells on behalf of the MNC Tullow -- without any mishaps, and at much lower costs. There is no reason therefore to ignore BAPEX but it is reportedly getting the cold shoulder, at the behest of vested interest groups, according to sources watching the country's beleaguered natural resources sector in general, and the discovery of the latest gasfield, Sunetra, in particular. The latter, a highly promising field within Block 11 and 12 of Sunamganj-Netrakona, was discovered by BAPEX sometime between 2009-10. Close to the Bibiyana field, the estimate for Sunetra is 2.47 TCF ( trillion cubic feet), but it could very well be twice that. According to a joint survey by the USGS-Petrobangla, the 'undiscovered' gas in the Surma Basin region where Sunetra is situated could range from 1.8 to 8.14 TCF. The discovery was officially announced in July last year and it was decided that BAPEX would finalise a DPP ( project proposal for development) by March-April 2011 to start exploratory work on well number one (phase I), at an estimated cost of Taka 790 million. If successfully accomplished, phase II would start under the same DPP, to drill three 'development' wells, a process plant and a pipeline, costing Taka 2.0 billion. A DPP to that effect was submitted to the ministry concerned in February this year but the latter, in its infinite wisdom, trashed the DPP four months later, asking for a separate DPP for the first phase only. The fresh proposal, now estimated to cost Taka 836.4 million, was submitted in August. Observers see in this nothing but deliberate dilatory tactics, ultimately to take the job away from BAPEX, using the pretext of 'fast tracking' the project. BAPEX obviously could not even begin work after the initial DPP, save acquire land for two years, because the ministry concerned is allegedly far from keen to let it do the job. In fact it has even decided to wrench the Gas Development Fund away from BERC (Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission) which had set it up to facilitate speedy sanction of necessary funds for the express purpose of developing the sector. BAPEX was banking on GDF to develop Sunetra. This is clearly another case of throttling a home grown organization. To withdraw support from national institutions and organisations vested groups have always employed standard procedures blowing up 'faults' -- slow performance, inefficiency and corruption -- and suppressing successes, while paving the way for foreign companies to profit with sky high operational costs, and no doubt windfall commissions for the wheeler-dealers. Much was made of Bangladesh having trillions of cubic feet and some countries and companies prospecting for oil and gas have been all agog for doing business here. The sad fact is, the sector has been utterly mismanaged if not sabotaged. It is imperative that the resources are put to the best use and not wasted or diverted to profit others at the expense of Bangladesh's people and institutions.