A priority preparation gets going for hydrocarbon search in Bangladesh's hill tracts in partnership with any international oil major as the country bids for downsizing fuel imports amid current global crunch.
Sources say the state-owned oil-and gas-exploration company - BAPEX -- has moved to carry out exploration in the Chattogram Hill Tracts areas to boost domestic natural gas output and thus reduce dependency on the import of expensive LNG.
The Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd or BAPEX intends to form joint venture with any reputed and efficient international oil-and gas-exploration company for the fuel search in the hills, eyed as fossil-rich.
It has already invited expressions of interest (EOI) from interested global firms to pick one to partner in the exploration job at Changutong, Shishak, Goba Mura, Barkal and Bandarban locations in Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari hill districts.
A joint-venture agreement (JVA) will be inked with the selected global exploration firm for the exploration.
"We are eyeing discovery of a significant quantity of hydrocarbon reserves in the CHT areas following exploration," BAPEX managing director Mohammad Ali told the FE Thursday.
The lone state petroleum-exploration company has undertaken the programme in line with government instructions to ramp up domestic natural gas output, he says.
"We are eyeing forming a JV with a global firm as the BAPEX lacks sufficient capacity to carry out exploration efficiently in the CHT areas," Mr Ali adds.
Officials say a number of global firms, including Anglo-Dutch Shell Oil and US's United Meridian Corporation (UMC), had drilled a number of wells and carried out seismic surveys in the CHT belt several decades back.
The international oil companies (IOCs) had detected the presence of petroleum then but could not go for commercial production as the Brent Crude oil price was as low as US$6.0 per barrel back then.
Around six years back, a consortium of Chinese Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation and US's Longwood Resources was also interested to explore and develop four onshore gas structures in the CHT areas under a JVA with BAPEX.
Chinese oil-and gas-giant CNPC was also associated with the venture.
The JV was to do exploration and development works at Patiya, Jaldi, Kasalong and Sitapahar in the hilly areas.
But internal disputes among partners put their exploration plan on hold just before inking final deal following approval from the BAPEX board.
Previously in 2010, BAPEX was all set to form a joint venture with Chinese Sinopec Shengli to drill all the four wells.
But, after several rounds of negotiations, the initiative was jettisoned in 2013.
Sources say to date, Bapex has inked one 'controversial' JVA with Canadian Niko Resources to develop some 'abandoned' onshore gas fields, including Feni and Tengratila.
Bapex was a 'sleeping' partner in Niko-BAPEX JVA and had a carried-over stake of 20 per cent while the remaining 80 per cent was of Niko.
Bangladesh's overall natural gas production currently hovers around 3,059mmcfd against the demand for over 4,000mmcfd.
Of the overall output, re-gasified LNG is around 670mmcfd and the remaining is the output from local gas fields.
Azizjst@yahoo.com