Energy Bangla

Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd, a sister concern of British oil and gas giant Shell, which winded up its operations in Bangladesh in 1975, has shown interest to start a new offshore exploration venture in the Bay of Bengal.
Dr Adrian Richard-son, Shell’s senior opportunity leader for Asia, showed the interest to the Bangladesh High Commissioner to Singapore Mahbub Uz Zaman recently.
The company also showed interest to visit Dhaka next month to discuss the matter with the government’s high ups.
Shell said it continuously assesses oil and gas business opportunities and exploration potential all across Asia including in the Bay of Bengal.
The oil giant said the main purpose of the meeting with officials from relevant ministries, such as the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, would be for shell to acquire a deep understanding of Bangladesh and objective in structuring in fiscal terms in offshore exploration licensing.
“With such understanding, Shell hopes to be a better position to further discuss area of potential cooperation and partnering in exploring Bangladesh’s oil and gas potential to meet the long term energy demand of the country,” the firm said.
In August 9, 1975, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman purchased five major gas fields at a nominal price of 4.40 million Pound Sterling from the Shell.
The government had invited production sharing contract (PSC) in December, 2012 whereas Petrobangla signed two shallow sea (SS) blocks SS-04 and SS-09 with ONGC Videsh, Oil India and BAPEX joint venture while another SS-11 blocks with the Santos, KrisEnergy and BAPEX joint venture.
Besides, the government has also considered signing three deep sea blocks with US company ConocoPhillips.
The government is hopeful to invite next offshore bidding round in 2016, officials concerned said.
“We have no practice to award blocks to international oil companies without tender process in the Bay,” the official said. He added the government will sit with the Shell and inform about the procedure to award blocks.