The long-awaited multi-client survey to delineate hydrocarbon (HC) reserve in the Bay of Bengal is all set to start, as the contractor concerned - a Norway-US joint venture (JV) - has planned to initiate the work later this month.
The JV of TGS-Schlumberger's decision to carry out the survey came only three months ahead of the deadline of the contracted period.
"The JV firm has informed us of its readiness to initiate the survey in the Bay in December, preferably in later part of the month," a senior Petrobangla official told the FE on Sunday.
The JV has up to March 2023 to complete the survey under its deal with Petrobangla, the state-run petroleum agency, now exasperated by global energy supply crunch.
It has bank guarantee worth US$ 500,000 deposited with Petrobangla under the deal for carrying out the job.
Sources said TGS-Schlumberger JV was selected through a competitive bidding for carrying out the multi-client seismic survey in the Bay of Bengal. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved awarding the job to the firm in April 2019.
The Covid-19 pandemic along with subsequent record fall in oil and energy prices in the international market, however, kept the contractor at bay from initiating the survey that resulted in the delay.
The Norwegian seismic specialist TGS and US oilfield service provider Schlumberger are now jointly involved in a multi-client seismic survey project in the US Gulf of Mexico.
The JV is expected to carry out the survey in 21 offshore blocks within the sovereign territory of Bangladesh, where potential hydrocarbon reserves remain untapped while the neighbouring countries are reportedly extracting fossil fuels.
The blocks together cover an 81,000 square-kilometre area with depths ranging from 20 metres to around 2,500 metres in the Bay.
On completion of the survey, Petrobangla would provide the interested international oil companies (IOCs) with the non-exclusive multi-client seismic data of the offshore blocks to help them carry out basin evaluation, prospect generation, and participation in the bidding for exploration.
As per the tender terms, the JV surveyor would not get any payment from Petrobangla for its work, but would be free to sell data to the interested IOCs.
The JV firm, however, would have to share the seismic data and the profit with the host.
The TGS-Schlumberger tie-up got two years to complete the survey, and would be free to trade the data over the next eight years.
Bangladesh never conducted multi-client seismic survey in its offshore areas. The country earlier floated international tenders several times to carry out oil and gas exploration by the IOCs - both in onshore and offshore areas. The bid-winning IOCs carried out seismic surveys in their respective blocks on their own before initiating oil and gas explorations.
The country's offshore areas are now well-demarcated following the verdicts from international courts. Bangladesh has territorial rights of up to 200 nautical miles from the shore in the Bay of Bengal as exclusive economic zone.
Besides, the country has free access to around 387 nautical miles into the deep sea following the demarcation of maritime boundary by international court of arbitration.
There are heavy potentials of getting hydrocarbon in Bangladesh's territorial waters, as both India and Myanmar have already discovered huge gas reserve in the Bay.
"The IOCs are expected to show significant interest for exploration in the country's offshore areas once the seismic data is available," said energy expert Prof M Tamim, who is currently serving as the pro-vice-chancellor of Brac University.
Petrobangla floated offshore bidding rounds without any survey in 2008, 2012 and 2016. But only a few IOCs took part in the bidding, while production sharing contracts (PSCs) could be inked only for four blocks.
Currently, four IOCs have active PSCs, either individually or under JV, 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 gas-fields under onshore blocks 12, 13 and 14.
Singapore's KrisEnergy is producing natural gas from Bangora field under block 9.
