Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-Russia's state-owned Gazprom is interested in setting up a joint venture with Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company, Bapex, to jointly carry out oil and gas exploration in either of the countries or others, Petrobangla Chairman Hussain Monsur said Tuesday.
Gazprom, which is increasingly more focused on strengthening relations with Asia, currently operates in Bangladesh on a contract basis, as a drilling contractor, reports platts.com.
Gazprom International CEO Valeriy Gulev late last week expressed the company's interest during a meeting in Dhaka between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a Gazprom delegation.
The proposed JV between Gazprom and Bangladesh's sole oil and gas exploration company could be used to identify and implement new projects in Bangladesh, Russia or any third countries, the chairman of Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Mineral Corporation, or Petrobangla, said.
The Russian side has expressed its strong interest in this initiative and its readiness to carry out comprehensive analysis and the required consultations at the earliest opportunity, he added.
A timeline for setting up the proposed JV was not disclosed.
In addition to carrying out joint exploration onshore and offshore Bangladesh, Gulev also proposed joint exploration for hydrocarbons in Myanmar under the proposed JV, the Bangladesh prime minister's press secretary AKM Shamim Chowdhury said.
Officials said the Gazprom CEO's visit to Bangladesh follows a series of meetings between representatives of both countries on gas exploration.
Bangladesh in September last year sought a $2 billion loan from Russia, at an interest rate of less than 2 percent, to fund development of its onshore gas fields.
It has not received the loan as yet. The funds were for drilling 41 wells — comprising 13 development, 8 appraisal, 13 workover and 7 exploratory wells — in the Titas, Bankhrabad, Kamta, Bhola, Horipur, Koilashtila, Biani Bazar, Chittagong and Rashidpur gas fields.
Bangladesh also wanted to build 12 gas processing plants at the fields operated by state-owned Bangladesh Gas Fields Company.
In addition, it was also planning to carry out 2,570 km of 2-D and 3-D seismic surveys in several onshore areas and build 511 km (317 miles) of natural gas pipelines to link fields to domestic markets.
It expects these developments, if completed, to increase natural gas output by 1.06 Bcf/d.
In September last year, Gazprom had expressed interest in drilling four new wells — two in the Shahbazpur gas field and one each in the Haripur and Jaldi gas fields, Monsur said.
It was also interested in building a natural gas pipeline from Shahbazpur to Khulna in the south, where there is currently no gas available, he added.
There seems to be no progress in most of these plans as yet.
Gazprom is currently carrying out a 10-well drilling program costing around $193.5 million in state-run gas fields owned by three gas subsidiaries of Petrobangla.
Gazprom had produced its first gas in Bangladesh on May 21, 2013, while testing the Srikail-3 onshore well in the Comilla field.
Gazprom has completed drilling at seven wells — Srikail-3, Titas-19, Titas-20, Titas-21, Titas-22, Begumganj-3 and Semutang-6. Drilling work is underway on Shahbazpur-3. Some of these wells are already supplying natural gas to Bangladesh's national gas grid.
Bangladesh is currently grappling with an acute gas crisis, with supply hovering around 2.31 Bcf/d against demand for around 3.0 Bcf/d.
BBN/ANS-15July14-7:55pm (BST)
