A Norwegian-US joint venture, TGS-Schlumberger, is waiting for a fresh model production-sharing contract (MPSC) before initiating its seismic shoots in the Bay of Bengal, said sources.
They said a lucrative MPSC would attract international oil companies (IOCs) to carry out hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal while the IOCs would be interested in purchasing the survey data from the JV firm.
The TGS-Schlumberger is delaying its survey activities fearing that the data would remain unsold if the MPSC doesn't turn lucrative.
It has a time up to March 2023 to complete the survey, which is considered the spadework for exploration of oil and gas in the bay.
Scotland's Wood Mackenzie, however, is carrying out the job of sweetening Bangladesh's MPSC to lure IOCs to explore hydrocarbons in the Bay.
It will take around one month more to review the MPSC 2019 and make it attractive, competitive and internationally acceptable for oil-and- gas exploration and development, said a senior Petrobangla official.
Officials said the TGS-Schlumberger will not get any payment for its seismic work from the state-run Petrobangla, but they are allowed to sell data to the interested IOCs to recover their investment with profits.
The JV surveyor will also have to share the seismic data and the profits with Petrobangla, as per the deal.
The duo now fear that their $20-million investment may get mired if the IOCs do not come up to purchase survey data.
The contractor is also mandated to surrender $500,000 bank guarantee in case of dereliction of the survey.
Under the existing MPSC 2019, the gas price for deep-sea blocks was set at around $7.26 per million British thermal unit (MMBtu), up by 11.69 per cent from the previous MPSC.
The offshore gas price was set to increase every year by 1.5 per cent from the date of first gas production, according to the latest MPSC.
Petrobangla had floated the last bidding round 10 years back in 2012 through which shallow-water blocks and one deep-water block were awarded to contractors.
But not a single exploratory well was drilled by the contractors to date.
The country has not offered any onshore oil and gas block since 1997, thus resulting in a long lapse and consequent shortages in the fuel for industries and households.
Bangladesh currently has a total of 26 open blocks in offshore areas, of them 11 located in shallow water and the remaining 15 are in deep water.
The country's natural gas output is currently hovering around 3,000 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), of which 700 mmcfd is regasified imported LNG, according to Petrobangla.
The entire local output comes from onshore gas fields. Currently, four IOCs have active PSCs, either individually or under joint venture, to explore three shallow-water blocks for offshore exploration.
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) are jointly exploring shallow-water blocks SS-04 and SS-09.
US oil-major Chevron is active in exploring and producing natural gas in three onshore gas fields under onshore blocks 12, 13 and 14.
Singapore's KrisEnergy is producing natural gas from Bangora gas field under block 9.
