Plan to float int’l bidding for offshore hydrocarbon exploration dropped before election

UNB :
The government has dropped the plan to float international bidding for offshore hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal before the upcoming general election.

“We’re instructed not to proceed with the plan to invite any bidding right at this moment, before the election,” a top official of the state-owned Petrobangla said.

“It was also decided not to proceed with ExxonMobil’s interest of expression (EOI). We’ve been asked to go slow on both issues,” he told UNB requesting anonymity.

Earlier, on July 26, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the draft ‘Bangladesh Offshore Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC) 2023’ in order to invite international bidding for hydrocarbon exploration in offshore areas of the country.

The final approval for the draft Model PSC 2023 was given under a plan to invite the bidding round within December.

Following the approval, on August 9, the then Energy Secretary Dr Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder said that the government planned to invite international bidding for offshore hydrocarbon exploration within a month.

Recently, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid, at a contract signing ceremony with US-based Excelerate Energy for importing LNG, said that the government will invite bidding on hydrocarbon exploration when the new government is formed after general election.

The government, meanwhile, signed a number of long-term deals with different companies to import LNG which drew criticism from energy experts, saying that the deals will make the country further dependent on imported energy.

According to official sources, the new Model PSC was prepared as part of a plan to invite international bidding within the current year for offshore deep and shallow water gas blocks, to make Bangladesh more attractive to international oil companies and draw investment in hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal.