No bidders for BD’s offshore blocks as 9-month deadline expires

News Desk :

Petrobangla officials were left shocked as none of the international oil companies (IOCs) submitted bids for oil and gas exploration in the country’s offshore blocks, after the deadline for bidding expired on Monday.

“We were really stunned by the non-submission of bids from the interested bidders,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) told UNB.

Outgoing Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker speculated that the declining trend of oil prices in the international market could have contributed to the lack of response, reports UNB.

However, some Petrobangla officials believe that the prevailing uncertainty surrounding the interim government and the political climate in the country would also have played a major role in the failure to generate even a single bid.

The Petrobangla chairman mentioned that a total of seven IOCs had purchased bid documents and nine IOCs had purchased offshore data packs in preparation for submitting bids in the round titled “Oil and Natural Gas Exploration Under Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2024”.

These companies include ExxonMobil and Chevron (USA), Petronas (Malaysia), the joint venture TGS and Schlumberger (Norway and France), Inpex Corporation and Jogmac (Japan), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Eni SPA (Italy), Chris Energy (Singapore), and ONGC (India).

Petrobangla had floated the international open tender on March 10 this year, allowing six months for bid submission for the exploration of oil and gas within the country’s maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.

After two pre-bid meetings, the submission deadline was extended by three months, at the request of the IOCs, to 1 pm on December 9, 2024.

As per the tender, the bid documents were to be opened immediately after the submission deadline.