AB Siddique :
In 2005, I was working as a senior reporter for a national daily and was looking for an expert to report on gas.
I went to the Energy Regulatory Commission in Kawran Bazar. There I met a member named Kamrujjan. After talking to him, he said, “You talk to Musharraf Bhai”.
He himself took him to Mr. Musharraf’s room and introduced himself. Mr. Mosharraf was the chairman of Petrobangla at one time.
His village home is in Sirajganj. Mr. Mosharraf was the first to conduct onshore oil and gas exploration in Bangladesh and divide the land into 12 blocks. He is an international energy expert.
Although he had no such name-calling nor was he in favor of asserting himself, he was a very peaceful person.
He used to go abroad for meetings and seminars on fuel. However, he was telling me, if we could exploit the resources that Bangladesh has underground and under the sea, we would become one of the richest countries in the world.
Bangladesh is full of natural resources, on the one hand, there are more valuable resources under the ground such as gas and coal, on the other hand, there are many valuable resources under the sea. That resource is fuel gas. Apart from gas, there are many other resources in the sea.
An initiative was also taken to buy a ship very soon to carry out sea exploration. Bangladesh has 118,813 square kilometers of sea area, 200 nautical miles of special economic zone due to the determination of maritime boundaries with Myanmar and India by the International Court of Justice. Gets jurisdiction over the region.
At the same time, Bangladesh also gets the right to establish sovereignty over all kinds of animal and non-animal resources located in Mahisopan up to 354 nautical miles from Chittagong coast.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a recent event that emphasizing the use of marine resources based on the right of the sea, as a result of the conquest of maritime boundaries from India and Myanmar, our border has increased in the sea, as well as there are many resources in this sea area.
Development of human resources and technology should be done to use these resources.
The government is working towards this goal. After the settlement of maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar in 2013 and Bangladesh in 2014 with India, the government started thinking about extracting the resources of this vast region.
An international workshop was held in Dhaka in 2014, where 32 experts from 19 countries participated. Bangladesh promised to use the resources of the sea in the presence of guests.
Importance should be given to offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction. There has been a lot of drama in the past, not anymore. No more complexity or file clutter.
It is known that the file of oil and gas exploration in the deep sea area of Bangladesh has been caught in the trap of ‘multi client’ survey.
Allegedly, it is futile to search for marine resources including oil and gas in the sea without the idea of ‘multi-client survey’ by a syndicate that is a victim of global energy politics inside and outside the government.
In this syndicate there are some professional bureaucrats, local and foreign business circles and a circle of experts in this sector.
However, Bangladesh’s two neighboring countries, Myanmar and India, have started exploration in their respective waters without a ‘multi-client’ survey and have found large quantities of gas.
Myanmar-Bangladesh is also starting to extract gas from multiple blocks along the border. It should be kept in mind that Bangladesh is going to face a major gas crisis in the near future.
Now gas (LNG) is being imported at 4 times higher price to meet the crisis. But there is no speed in oil and gas exploration activities in the country.
Although there is some work on land, there is no sight at sea. Exploration activities for mineral resources in the vast sea area of the country have been suspended for years.
Currently, one of the main problems of rapid and extensive industrialization in Bangladesh is the lack of primary energy. Although the tender was called twice, the selected company could not be given the work order.
International tenders are not being invited for oil and gas exploration in offshore blocks. Earlier, several rounds of international tenders were called, but due to lack of sufficient information, there was no good response.
There is little to prepare for deep sea surveys. Bangladesh’s maritime boundary dispute with Myanmar was settled on March 14, 2012.
A few years have passed. And Bangladesh’s maritime boundary dispute with India was settled on July 7, 2014. For so long, Bangladesh is only running after the ‘multi-client’ survey.
Even if the government decides to conduct a ‘multi-client’ survey now, it will take at least 2 years to complete all its accessories.
After that, the company that will do the survey, they will do the survey at their own expense. But they will own all the information received for at least 15 years. Even the state-owned company Petrobangla cannot use that data without buying it.
The company that conducts the survey will sell the information it receives to interested foreign companies. After analyzing that information, if a company thinks it is possible, only then they can come to the discussion with the government.
In this case, even if any company comes, it will take at least another 5 years to start working according to their agreement and contract with the government.
That is, according to the decision of the government’s ‘multi-client’ survey, it will take at least seven years to start the actual work of energy exploration.
It is possible to start oil and gas exploration within 1 year if Myanmar and India approach is followed without a ‘multi client’ survey. Already there is a severe gas crisis in Chittagong region. The crisis is not only in the Chittagong region, but in Bangladesh.
( Author: Journalist)