Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Bangladesh has announced ‘Offshore Bidding 2024’ to accelerate oil and gas exploration.
The announcement came at a press conference, organised by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, in the Petrobangla Auditorium on Monday, BSS reports.
Prime Minister's Advisor on Electricity, Energy and Mineral Resources Taufiq-e-Ilahi Chowdhury attended the event as chief guest, and State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid attended as the special guest.
In order to make the 'Offshore Model PSC, 2019' more contemporary and competitive in the global context, the government has formulated the 'Bangladesh Offshore Model PSC, 2023' based on the opinion of international consultants and Petrobangla's own review. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved it on July 26, 2023.
The new PSC includes several interesting points and aims at creating exploration opportunities for international oil companies in Bangladesh's offshore areas.
One of the points of the newly formulated PSC is to make the annual cost recovery maximum of 75 per cent for both deep and shallow sea areas, according to a press release.
As a result of this change, the contractor will get the invested money back promptly, and so Petrobangla will receive a higher rate of dividend.
The profit-sharing method has been included in the current PSC by following Profitability Based (R-Factor).
In this method, the contractor's invested money is guaranteed to be returned within a reasonable time, and the government has kept the opportunity to receive more dividends by keeping the upper and lower limits of the dividend share eligible for bidding, it said.
Brent has been used as the marker price for determining the price of shallow and deep sea gas, and it has linked gas prices to the international market.
These attractive points in the PSC are expected to catch the eyes of international bidders and investors who want to explore offshore energy sources.
Petrobangla Chairman Janendra Nath Sarkar and Energy and Mineral Resources Department Secretary M Nurul Alam presided over the press conference.