Energy Bangla

Bangladesh and Russia on Wednesday agreed to form an international joint venture to explore oil and gas at home and abroad, initially in Myanmar’s offshore waters.
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company or BAPEX and Russian Gazprom EP International BV will form the joint-venture company.
The decision was taken at a meeting in Moscow on the day between a Bangladesh delegation led by the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid and a Russian delegation led by Gazprom’s managing director and chief executive officer Valery Gulev, officials said.
BAPEX managing director Md Atiquzzaman attended the meeting among the others.
Nasrul said both the parties would form the joint venture in a short time.
The proposed joint venture would explore oil and gas in Bangladesh’s onshore and offshore areas, he said, adding that it would also participate in the international tenders for oil and exploration in the Bay of Bengal, particularly in Myanmar’s waters.
Officials said the joint venture would expand its interest in south and south-eastern Asia including Indian Ocean through participating in international tenders.
They said that a joint technical committee would complete the formalities for creating the joint venture.
At the meeting, the Russian counterparts promised to assist the authorities concerned to help boost
capacity of Bangladesh Petroleum Institute, which is assigned to develop human resources in hydrocarbon exploration.
Nasrul said that Bangladesh can be benefited through technology and experience of one of the world’s largest gas companies.
He said the government would provide more drilling rigs and equipment to BAPEX to increase its capacity in oil and gas exploration through its own means, as well as the proposed joint venture.
Both the parties came up with the decision four years after Bangladesh asked its Russian counterparts to participate in offshore bidding, which the government had floated in 2012.
Gazprom did not participate in the tenders, instead in July 2014, it had proposed to Petrobangla — the parent organisation of BAPEX and the state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation — to form a joint venture with BAPEX.
Later on February 26, Gazprom sent a draft proposal to BAPEX for its observations. BAPEX, on April 26 sent the draft to Gazprom with its opinions.
Earlier, the government drew severe criticism for allowing Gazprom to drill 10 wells at different gas fields owned by three state-run companies at about $195 million, some 2.5 times higher than the cost at which BAPEX could do it.
Later, in April 2015, the government once again allocated five more drilling projects for Gazprom putting aside BAPEX.
Experts said such decisions of the government had already rendered BAPEX workless.
They suggested the joint venture should not be allowed to explore oil and gas in the better-known structures while BAPEX should be allowed to carry out the onshore exploration activities alone, inside the country.