Energy Bangla

Petrobangla received a single joint-venture between US company ConocoPhillips and Norwegian company Statoil for oil and gas exploration in deep sea, block DS-12, DS-16 and DS-21 in the Bay of Bengal.
The single response came following an international tender floated by Petrobangla on October 26, 2013 after the government amended the model Production Sharing Contract 2012 offering international oil companies more commercial benefits and stake in the produces.
Petrobangla opened the bids after 11:30 am on Sunday at Petrocentre’s. The companies proposed to invest $109 million for each of the blocks for oil and gas exploration in seven years after signing contracts. It will drill two exploration well in each of the blocks over the period. According to its proposal, the JV company will conduct 3,412 line-kilometer two dimensional seismic survey in the deep sea block 12 in seven years which is 2,775 line-kilometer in the block 16 and 3,376 line-kilometer in the block 21.
Earlier, being persuaded by a number of IOCs, Petrobangla revised the Model Production Sharing Contract 2012, halting a tender process it had floated on December 17 last year.
Initially, Petrobangla had floated the international tenders for oil and gas exploration in the three deep- sea blocks along with other nine shallow-sea blocks — 2, 3, 4, and 6 to 11.
Petrobangla, in two phases of tender, received only four bids from three IOCs for oil and gas exploration in four shallow sea blocks. Out of the four bids, the government has decided to sign contracts with Indian ONGC and Conoco for oil and gas exploration in the three corresponding blocks.
Now Conoco exploring oil and gas in two deep sea blocks DS 10 and DS 11. Besides, its bid for oil and gas exploration in a shallow sea block 7 in the Bay, which is adjacent to the deep sea block 11, has received the government’s nod for signing contract.