Petrobangla to invite Conoco to sign deal

Petrobangla is likely to invite ConocoPhillips, the US-based energy company to start talks before finalising the deal to explore hydrocarbon in the Bay of Bengal soon, reports BSS. "We got the law ministry's vetting and are now ready to invite Conoco to start talks for signing the primary deal," a senior official of the energy ministry told the news agency on Tuesday. Following the vetting, the energy ministry prepared a summary paper and sent it to the Cabinet Division to get the nod from the Committee on Economic Affairs, the official said. According to an official source, during the first round negotiation, the US based company Conoco wanted eight blocks, which was not approved by the cabinet body. Petrobangla earlier selected Conoco as a right bidder to explore eight blocks in the Bay. Petrobangla started negotiations on October 5, 2009 with ConocoPhillips to award the offshore blocks, but could not reach any conclusion. In the first round of talks, ConocoPhillips asked the Petrobangla to allocate them more blocks as the Indian borders are overlapping the areas of block 10 and 11.