Govt should 'open talks with groups against coal, gas exploration'
Monday, 9 January 2012
Nizam Ahmed
The authorities concerned should open talks with civil society members who are opposing exploration of hydrocarbon and other mineral resources in the name of conserving national wealth, experts and officials said on Saturday.
The groups opposing exploration often went violent against the initiatives of the government over the past decade delaying extraction of energy resources including coal, they said.
"The groups are driven by political motives, so the opposition against exploration of hydrocarbons should be solved politically, otherwise the nation will continue to suffer with lack of energy," Prof. Mohammad Tamim, head of the department of mineral resources engineering of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology told the FE.
However, the country needs coal to generate electricity urgently as oil-fired power plants installed over the past years have become costly creating stress over the national economy.
Without exploration of primary fuel like coal, implementation of the government plan to generate 20,000 mega watt (mw) of electricity may not be possible due to high cost of oil.
Bangladesh has five coal fields in the northern region, comprising Barapukuria, Phulbari, Khalaspur, Dighipara and Jamalganj with an estimated reserve of more than 3.0 billion tonnes, officials of the ministry of power, energy, and mineral resources (MPEMR) said.
Experts say generation of a mw of power in oil-fired power plants currently costs some $1.0 to $ 1.5 million.
Without new find of gas fields existing reserves are likely to be exhausted completely by next two to three years, other experts said.
"The authorities must take the opponents of energy exploration seriously and must find out a peaceful way out of it, otherwise it will be a total failure of the administration," a senior official of MPEMR told the FE.
In a latest showdown, a group openly clashed with police in the capital Dhaka late last month when obstructed in its bid to lay siege to the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources, police said.
The group demanded that the authorities should cancel all the deals it had signed with foreign firms, for exploration of hydrocarbon in onshore and offshore blocks.
"The leaders of the groups should be invited to debate the issue with experts across the table first. We are confident that they will have no ground in support of their claims," Tamim, who is also a former special assistant to the past interim government for energy affairs, said.
After talks it will be easy for the administration to force the opponents out of streets and go ahead for exploration of hydrocarbon to meet the national requirement, another expert said.
The elected governments should have no fear of such groups, energy officials said.
The groups allege that the foreign firms are profit mongers and they are likely to smuggle energy resources out of the country. The groups say the nation should wait until its own expertise is developed to explore natural resources.
Energy experts say there is no ground of these allegations against international oil companies and explorers.
Prof. Tamim advised that the authorities should engage foreign fund and expertise to explore the mineral as a primary fuel to generate electricity.
After three days of hunger strike by the group of Barapukuria coalmine the campaign was postponed on Thursday as the district administration distributed some Taka 52.62 million against 113 holdings, in the fifth installment of distribution of compensation among families affected by infrastructural damage.
The state-owned BCMCL has been extracting some 3,000 tonnes coal a day by underground mining method from the site under the northwestern Dinajpur district since 2005.
With them so far compensation amounting to Taka 800 million has been distributed against 888 holdings in the affected areas out of a total of 1,375 holdings, for which compensation amounting to Taka 1.67 billion had been claimed.
Officials of the Dinajpur district administration said the rest would be hopefully disbursed by the end of the current month.
The authorities concerned should open talks with civil society members who are opposing exploration of hydrocarbon and other mineral resources in the name of conserving national wealth, experts and officials said on Saturday.
The groups opposing exploration often went violent against the initiatives of the government over the past decade delaying extraction of energy resources including coal, they said.
"The groups are driven by political motives, so the opposition against exploration of hydrocarbons should be solved politically, otherwise the nation will continue to suffer with lack of energy," Prof. Mohammad Tamim, head of the department of mineral resources engineering of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology told the FE.
However, the country needs coal to generate electricity urgently as oil-fired power plants installed over the past years have become costly creating stress over the national economy.
Without exploration of primary fuel like coal, implementation of the government plan to generate 20,000 mega watt (mw) of electricity may not be possible due to high cost of oil.
Bangladesh has five coal fields in the northern region, comprising Barapukuria, Phulbari, Khalaspur, Dighipara and Jamalganj with an estimated reserve of more than 3.0 billion tonnes, officials of the ministry of power, energy, and mineral resources (MPEMR) said.
Experts say generation of a mw of power in oil-fired power plants currently costs some $1.0 to $ 1.5 million.
Without new find of gas fields existing reserves are likely to be exhausted completely by next two to three years, other experts said.
"The authorities must take the opponents of energy exploration seriously and must find out a peaceful way out of it, otherwise it will be a total failure of the administration," a senior official of MPEMR told the FE.
In a latest showdown, a group openly clashed with police in the capital Dhaka late last month when obstructed in its bid to lay siege to the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources, police said.
The group demanded that the authorities should cancel all the deals it had signed with foreign firms, for exploration of hydrocarbon in onshore and offshore blocks.
"The leaders of the groups should be invited to debate the issue with experts across the table first. We are confident that they will have no ground in support of their claims," Tamim, who is also a former special assistant to the past interim government for energy affairs, said.
After talks it will be easy for the administration to force the opponents out of streets and go ahead for exploration of hydrocarbon to meet the national requirement, another expert said.
The elected governments should have no fear of such groups, energy officials said.
The groups allege that the foreign firms are profit mongers and they are likely to smuggle energy resources out of the country. The groups say the nation should wait until its own expertise is developed to explore natural resources.
Energy experts say there is no ground of these allegations against international oil companies and explorers.
Prof. Tamim advised that the authorities should engage foreign fund and expertise to explore the mineral as a primary fuel to generate electricity.
After three days of hunger strike by the group of Barapukuria coalmine the campaign was postponed on Thursday as the district administration distributed some Taka 52.62 million against 113 holdings, in the fifth installment of distribution of compensation among families affected by infrastructural damage.
The state-owned BCMCL has been extracting some 3,000 tonnes coal a day by underground mining method from the site under the northwestern Dinajpur district since 2005.
With them so far compensation amounting to Taka 800 million has been distributed against 888 holdings in the affected areas out of a total of 1,375 holdings, for which compensation amounting to Taka 1.67 billion had been claimed.
Officials of the Dinajpur district administration said the rest would be hopefully disbursed by the end of the current month.