hydrocarbon exploration
No final proposals for 3 offshore blocks
BSS
The governments bid for awarding three offshore gas blocks for hydrocarbon exploration has failed again as none of the three aspirant bidders submitted their respective final proposals on Tuesday, the last day of submission, reports UNB. Of the blocks, two are deep sea blocks -- DS-10 and DS-11 - while the other is shallow sea block -- SS-10.
Officials of state-owned Petrobangla said three international oil companies (IOCs), which earlier received the request for proposal (RFP) on November 3, regretted to the organisation the non-submission of their respective financial and technical offers.
Singapore-based Kris Energy, South Korean Posco Daewoo International Corporation and Norways Statoil were the aspirant bidders for the blocks as they had earlier expressed their interest for the blocks through EoI process. But at the final stage, all of the three bidders conveyed their unwillingness for submission of final proposals, said the officials.
We received emails from Daewoo and Statoil, and Kris has communicated their decision over telephone in this regard, said a senior official at the Petrobangla preferring not to be quoted.
He attributed the unwillingness of the IOCs in engaging in offshore exploration to the fall in oil and gas price in the global market. Under the Prompt Supply of Power and Energy (Special Provision) Act, 2010, Petrobangla received EOIs and then asked the three companies to submit their RFPs by December 20.
The Petrobangla officials said the failure in receiving proposal from IOCs means the government has to take a fresh initiative for inviting tender or EOI which will ultimately take few months
or even a year. They said the government had pursued the way of inviting direct proposal from the three IOCs under the special provision in order to avoid time-consuming usual tender process.
But the failure ultimately leaves the government with no choice to start any immediate exploration works in the Bangladesh maritime areas in Bay of Bengal, said another Petrobangla official dealing with the matter.
Meanwhile, the government has recently awarded the deep sea gas block 12 to Daewoo International for exploration and recently Petrobangla and the Korean company signed a deal in this regard. Bangladesh has long been trying to award its offshore gas blocks to international oil companies since its settlement of maritime boundary disputes with neighbouring India and Myanmar, but its efforts were not very successful.
However, India and Myanmar have been successful to award their offshore blocks because of available data, said the Petrobangla officials.
