Govt mulls campaign to tap Bay resources

The government has planned to float international bidding shortly as part of a desperate campaign to tap hydrocarbon and aquatic resources in the sea after it won its second crucial claim over the maritime boundary earlier this week, reports BSS.
"Our greatest challenge is to ensure immediate availability of gas . . . we want to get it in soonest possible time," State Minister for Energy Nasrul Hamid Bipu told the news agency Friday.
The state minister said the state-run Petrobangla would convene a high-level meeting next week to review the expanded scope created after the maritime boundary verdict against the backdrop of dwindling reserves and the growing demand for gas.
"We, however, planned initially to launch a new bidding for offshore blocks by this year," Bipu said referring to the outcome of the past three such bidding rounds since 2008 which earned a lukewarm response from International Oil Companies (IOCs) due to overlapping claims over offshore blocks by Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.
The PCA verdict earned Bangladesh 19,467 square kilometers out of the disputed 25,602 square kilometres in the Bay of Bengal.
Fisheries department officials said they also were set to launch a survey on aquatic resources next month engaging a survey ship in the country's exclusive economic zone.
"Until today no complete survey was carried out to estimate our aquatic resources," Chief Fisheries Extension Officer of Fisheries Department Krishna Ranjan Saha said.