State-run Petrobangla eyes initiating the long-awaited offshore seismic survey to assess the hydrocarbon reserves in the Bay of Bengal in the coming winter.
TGS-Schlumberger, a Norway-US joint venture (JV), will carry out the survey of the country's territorial waters and indicate the prospect of hydro-carbon (HC) deposits in the offshore blocks, said a senior Petrobangla official.
"We are expecting to ink final deal with the TGS-Schlumberger JV next month to ensure that they initiate the survey this winter season -- sometime in October," said the official.
The Norwegian seismic specialist TGS and oilfield service provider Schlumberger are currently involved in a multi-client seismic project in the Gulf of Mexico.
The JV firm is expected to survey 22 offshore hydrocarbon blocks within the sovereign territory of Bangladesh.
The blocks cover 81,000-square kilometres having depth ranging from 20 metres to 2,500 metres in the Bay.
Upon completion of the survey, Petrobangla plans to provide interested international oil companies (IOCs) with the non-exclusive multi-client seismic data of the offshore blocks.
The objective is to help the companies carry out basin evaluation and participate in the bidding for exploration.
The JV seismic surveyors would not receive payments for their work from Petrobangla as per the bidding terms.
But they would be free to sell the data to interested IOCs.
The TGS-Schlumberger, however, would have to share the seismic data and profits with Petrobangla.
It would get two years to do the survey and would be free to trade the data for the next eight years.
Petrobangla has planned to launch a fresh offshore bidding round on completion of the survey in the Bay.
"We shall launch the bidding round as soon as we get the seismic data over our offshore blocks," said a senior Petrobangla official.
Bangladesh's natural gas production from local fields is hovering at around 2,700 mmcfd, against the overall demand for around 4,000 mmcfd, according to the state oil and gas corporation.
Officials said Bangladesh never carried out such a multi-client seismic survey in any offshore block.
The country had earlier floated multiple international tenders to explore oil and gas both onshore and offshore by IOCs.
The bid winners carried out the seismic surveys on their own in their respective blocks before initiating oil and gas exploration.
The country's offshore areas are now well-demarcated following verdicts by international courts.
Bangladesh has territorial rights of up to 200 nautical miles from shore as exclusive economic zone in the bay.
Besides, it has free access to around 387 nautical miles into deep sea following demarcation of maritime boundary by the International Court of Arbitration.
There is a huge potential for getting hydrocarbon in Bangladesh's maritime territory as both India and Myanmar have already discovered substantial gas in the bay.
Petrobangla floated offshore bidding rounds without any survey in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
Only a few IOCs took part in the bidding and production sharing contracts could be signed only for four blocks.
