Tender to be floated in Dec for offshore seismic survey

State-owned Petrobangla will float international tender by December this year to carry out 'non-exclusive multi-client' seismic survey in offshore blocks in the Bay of Bengal to explore hydrocarbon deposits, a senior official said Saturday.
The Petrobangla has already drafted the tender documents and sent those to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) for approval before launching the bid, he said.
A new bidding round to carry out oil and gas exploration in the Bay would be floated on conclusion of the survey, said an official of the Petrobangla.  
The Petrobangla will have an edge before launching of new bidding round if it gets data first.
Besides, it will also be able to sell data to be acquired following the seismic surveys, he said.
A number of international companies may be interested to carry out surveys in new offshore blocks once tender is floated, a senior EMRD official told the FE.
If the selected firms are given a limited time to complete surveys, the potentials of the offshore areas could be unveiled soon, he added.
The Petrobangla would then be able to fix rational terms competitive with global market for awarding new offshore blocks, he said.
Otherwise, it might lose significantly if blocks are awarded without surveys.
The country's offshore areas are now well-demarcated following the verdicts from international courts.
The Hague-based United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in its verdict against India in June this year upheld Bangladesh's claim of 200 nautical miles' exclusive economic zone and territorial rights in the Bay of Bengal.
The verdict of the tribunal gave the country a substantial share of the extended continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles sustaining Bangladesh's claim of equitable solution.
The tribunal awarded Bangladesh 19,467 square kilometre area out of the disputed 25,602 sq km.
With the verdict, Bangladesh got, fully or partially, all the 10 offshore oil and gas blocks India had previously claimed.
It got full rights on entire deep sea blocks -- DS-08-10, DS-08-15, DS-08-20 and DS-08-25 -- following the verdict.
It also got majority stakes of deep sea blocks -- DS-08-09, DS-08-14, DS-08-19 and DS-08-24 and shallow water blocks SS-08-01 and SS-08-05.
Some of the bordering blocks like 5, 9, 14, 19 and 24 would, however, require to be relocated in line with the international verdict.
Earlier on March 14, 2012 the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), based in Hamburg, Germany, also ended the maritime dispute between Bangladesh and Myanmar through which several blocks were released from any controversy. The country's huge areas in the offshore territory had remained untapped for long due to the maritime disputes with neighbouring India and Myanmar.
The country's last efforts during 2008 and 2012 did not get much response from oil companies due to the disputes.
During Bangladesh's 2008 bidding for oil and gas exploration, India and Myanmar had formally protested the move saying some of the blocks were located in their territories.
During the offshore bidding round in February 2008, Bangladesh had offered 28 offshore blocks -- 20 deepwater and eight in shallow water.
Bangladesh could award only parts of two deepwater blocks -- DS-08-10 and DS-08-11 -- to ConocoPhillips of the USA and that too after a series of meetings three years after the launch of the bidding round on June 16, 2011.
ConocoPhillips, however, decided to pull out from both these blocks halting exploration activities seeing non-viable economic prospects there.
Although Bangladesh had selected the UK's Tullow for shallow water block SS-08-05 during 2008 bidding, it could not ink a production-sharing contract (PSC) because of the dispute with India.
The country, however, awarded shallow water block SS-11 to the joint venture of Australia's Santos and Singapore's KrisEnergy and SS-04 and SS-09 to the joint venture of ONGC Videsh and Oil India Ltd under 2012 bidding round.  
It got only one bid each for three deep water blocks DS-12, DS-16 and DS-21 from the joint venture of ConocoPhillips and Norway's Statoil during 2012 bidding.  
No PSC for these blocks has yet been inked.
There are huge potentials of getting hydrocarbon in Bangladesh's maritime territory as both India and Myanmar already discovered huge gas in the Bay.

azizjst@yahoo.com