A Chevron team will meet senior Petrobangla officials today to sort out the seven-month-old dispute over the former’s share transfer to a Chinese consortium. The meeting will be held at Petrobangla’s Dhaka office, sources told The Independent. “This is the first meeting with Chevron after the dispute erupted at the end of 2016 when the international media reported that Chevron would sell its Bangladesh assets. However, we don’t know whether the meeting will at all lead to anything positive,” said a Petrobangla official.
Officials at the local Chevron office claimed that they know nothing about a meeting. “We don’t know that the Chevron head office has arranged any kind of meeting with the government. So, there is no question of knowing who will represent Chevron,” said a Chevron official.
Petrobangla officials said Chevron has not yet disclosed the names of the team members to them either. Over the last few months, Petrobangla and Chevron have exchanged some letters over the issue of whether Chevron
can sell their assets to a third party without the government’s consent.
Last month, Petrobangla invited Chevron to a meeting to settle the issue. Chevron responded positively to the letter.
However, Chevron has already transferred all its shares to the Chinese consortium Himalaya Energy Co. Ltd. It is owned by China ZhenHua Oil Co. Ltd and CNIC Co. Ltd.
Sources said the Chinese management has already taken charge without the government’s permission.
On the other hand, Petrobangla has requested the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and the Joint Stock Companies and Firms (JSCF) to block all of Chevron’s activities for transferring its shares to the Chinese consortium.
A government official told this correspondent that according to Article 31.1 (p. 77) of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC), Chevron has no right to transfer its shares without permission.
However, Article 31.2 says: “The contractor shall have the right to assign any or all of its rights, interests and obligations under this contract to any of its affiliates, or to any other entity comprising the contractor or affiliates, with prior written approval of Petrobangla which shall not be unreasonably withheld.”
A Petrobangla official said that even after the announcement of the sale of Chevron’s assets in Bangladesh, they never officially informed the government about the transfer. The Energy Division took this very seriously.
On October 14 last year, Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, had told the media that the Bangladesh government had offered to buy all the natural gas assets of Chevron in Bangladesh.
“We’re interested in buying the assets. It will be a big opportunity for us to have access to the entire production of the three gas fields,” he had said.
But Chevron did not respond to the interest evinced by the governmen, and instead handed over its shares to the Chinese consortium.
Chevron produces half of the total gas generated in the country.