Foreign Companies Interested In Oil And Gas Extraction: Nasrul

Several international companies have expressed interest in oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal, as stated by Nasrul Hamid, the State Minister of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources. The state minister announced the invitation for bids on this matter, stating that the upcoming Production Sharing Contract (PSC) round is much more attractive than any previous period.

On Monday (March 11th), at a press conference held at the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (Petrobangla) building, the state minister revealed these remarks regarding the Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2024.

He mentioned that many international companies, including large American corporations, have shown a desire to participate in the bidding for this round.

The deadline for submitting bids has been set until September 9th of the current year, following which a selection process will determine which companies will be awarded contracts.

On Sunday (March 10th), Petrobangla issued an invitation titled "Oil and Natural Gas Exploration under Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2024." The invitation includes a total of 24 offshore blocks, with 9 deep-sea blocks and 15 ultra-deep-sea blocks. Among them, Blocks SS-01, 02, 03, 05, 06, 07, 08, 10, and 11 are deep-sea blocks, while the remaining Blocks DS-08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 are ultra-deep-sea blocks.

According to Petrobangla, due to the challenges associated with deep-sea oil and gas extraction, companies can choose to submit bids individually or in collaboration with other organizations for one or more blocks.

Also present at the time were Petrobangla's Chairman, Jannatnath Sarkar, and the Chief Advisor on Energy, Mineral, and Mineral Resources, Taufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury.