The government is likely to sign a deal with Russia by November on the drilling of 10 wells in different gas fields, the Petrobangla chairman, Hossain Monsur, said.
He told New Age that Russian state-run gas corporation Gazprom was willing to mobilise its two drilling rigs heading to Bangladesh in December.
‘In the past few days we discussed terms and conditions of the contract. After Eid-ul Azha, the proposal will be placed at the cabinet committee on purchase after the approval of the prime minister [also the energy minister],’ he said on Friday evening.
The Energy Division and the state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla) in the past week held a series of meetings with a visiting high-powered Russian delegation which includes Gazprom’s head of legal department Alexander Nikiforov, head of tax and insurance Pert V Oleynik and head of economic and finance department Emirlan T Toromyrzaev.
Monsur said that they had discussed the terms and conditions of the contract including drilling costs, performance guarantee, insurance, etc.
In the negotiation, Petrobangla agreed to pay $193.55m to Gazprom for drilling 10 gas wells, a Petrobangla official said.
He said, ‘Gazprom reduced 2 per cent of its earlier demand for the drilling of gas wells.’
Gazprom sought $102m for drilling five wells in the Titas and Rashidpur gas fields and $95m for drilling five other gas wells.
Gazprom would deposit 5 per cent of the project cost in performance guarantee and bear the charges for insurance of the transport of drilling rigs and other materials in line with international laws. Gazprom estimated the amount of insurance around $10m, he added.
In the earlier proposal, Gazprom did not include any provision to deposit performance guarantee and introduce insurance for the project as it would be a state to state contract.
The official said that Gazprom would complete drilling 10 gas wells in 18 months after the signing of the deals. Drilling will begin from the Titas gas field.
Gazprom’s delegation arrived in Dhaka on Sunday and left on Thursday.
Under the scheme, Petrobangla has planned to drill 10 gas wells, including four wells in the Titas field, two wells each in Shahabajpur and Semutang gas fields and one each in Begumganj and Rashidpur gas fields.
The drilling of five wells in the Titas and Rashidpur gas fields was under a fast-track programme adopted by the government in 2009 and rest five gas wells are under the gas extraction enhancement programme of the state-run petroleum exploration and production company Bapex.
But the Polish oil company Poszukiwania Naftyi i Gazu Krakow (Oil and Gas Exploration Company Cracow), contractor of the project, informed Petrobangla earlier in February that it would not drill five wells in the Titas and Rashidpur gas fields claiming that the Titas was leaking gas.
Petrobangla hopes to supply around 250 million cubic feet of natural gas to the national grid by drilling 10 gas wells by the end of 2012.
Source: newagebd.com/newspaper1
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