There is no hurry to open bidding for offshore gas exploration

If everything goes according to plan, Petrobangla, the national gas and oil company, will start the bidding process for offshore gas exploration by the first week next month.

It will do this following the approval of the new Production Sharing Contract (PSC) model.

As soon as the news of it broke Thursday, allegations surfaced that the government is ready to give this work of hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal to a powerful nation in an attempt to remain in power.

Reportedly, the new model PSC, developed on the recommendation of UK-based Wood Mackenzie, a multinational research and consultancy group, offers higher gas prices and profits for explorers than the 2019 model.

From Petrobangla it is said that gas exploration will become much more expensive after 2030 due to gradual withdrawal of Western investors from their investments in hydrocarbon exploration and extraction, and that is why they are going to open bidding now.

If that is the truth, why does the government not do it after six months when a new government will be there? No, the government cannot wait for it and wants to remain in power.

The government consistently ignored experts’ calls to explore its own resources that could save the nation’s foreign currencies.

In total, Bangladesh has 26 offshore blocks including 15 are located in the deep sea and 22 onshore hydrocarbon blocks. After winning the maritime boundary case against Myanmar at ITLOS (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) in 2012 and settlement of maritime boundary with India through the legal mechanism under the UNCLOS, a huge prospect of blue economy for Bangladesh has opened up.

It is not expected that, for wrong policies of the government or political gain, the huge wealth in the sea is squandered.

This country with a huge population size can ill afford such wastage or misuse of its precious wealth.