Norwegian-US JV bringing vessel to complete hydrocarbon reserves survey in Bay

A Norwegian-US joint-venture firm contracted by Bangladesh is arranging vessel to complete a multi-client seismic survey on offshore hydrocarbon reserves in the Bay of Bengal, officials said about the move, pushed by current fuel crunch worldwide.

Completion of the seismic survey to gauge the deposits of gas and oil would pave the way for long-awaited exploration drives in the offshore turfs.

The contractor, however, has not yet confirmed Petrobangla about the timing of starting off the survey, said a senior official the state-run petroleum corporation.

The JV firm, TGS-Schlumberger, is committed to completing the job by March 2023 under its agreement with Petrobangla.

Sources said the country's future oil-and-gas exploration activity hinges on outcome of the offshore multi-client seismic survey.

Delineation of any prospective hydrocarbon zone in offshore waters after the survey is hoped to be a big boost to the country's future energy availability.

"Potential international oil companies (IOCs) will also be lured into carrying out exploration in the country's unexplored offshore areas," said one official.

Sources say the joint venture has already completed environmental impact assessment (EIA) regarding the survey operation.

The survey is precursor to the launch of a new offshore bidding round to explore fossil fuels in the country's untapped offshore blocks by the IOCs.

Energy ministry already deferred a plan to announce a fresh offshore bidding programme in March 2020 in the wake of the global spread of coronavirus pandemic.

TGS-Schlumberger was selected for the job twice following two separate competitive biddings floated back in 2015. The initial bid floated early 2015 was cancelled but the subsequent bidding floated late in the year had been held up over the past three and a half years.

The cabinet committee on Economic Affairs finally approved awarding the job of carrying out multi-client seismic survey to the TGS-Schlumberger JV in April 2019.

But the deadly coronavirus and subsequent record fall in oil and energy prices on the international market amid a stalemate in economic activity, however, had discouraged the contractor from initiating the survey, resulting in the delay.

The Norwegian seismic-specialist TGS and oilfield service provider Schlumberger are currently involved jointly with multi-client seismic project in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The JV is expected to carry out survey in 21 offshore hydrocarbon blocks within the sovereign territory of Bangladesh. The blocks cover an 81,000-square-kilometre area with the depths ranging from 20 metres to around 2,500 metres in the Bay.

On completion of the survey, Petrobangla would provide interested IOCs the non-exclusive multi-client seismic data on the offshore blocks to help them conduct basin evaluation, prospect generation and participation in the bidding for exploration.

The joint-venture seismic surveyors would not receive payments for their work from Petrobangla, as per the tender terms. But they would be free to sell the data to the interested IOCs. And the JV would have to share the seismic data and the profits with Petrobangla.

The TGS-Schlumberger duo got two years to complete the survey and over the next eight years they would be free to trade out the data.

Bangladesh never carried out multi-client seismic surveys in offshore areas.

The country earlier had floated international tenders several times to carry out oil and gas exploration both in onshore and offshore areas by the IOCs. The bid- winning IOCs carried out seismic surveys of their own in their respective blocks before getting down to exploration.

The country's offshore areas are now well-demarcated following the verdicts from international courts. Bangladesh has territorial rights of up to 200 nautical miles from shore as exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal.

Besides, the country has free access to around 387 nautical miles into deep sea following demarcation of maritime boundary by international court of arbitration.

There is, however, huge potential of striking hydrocarbons in Bangladesh's territorial waters as both India and Myanmar already discovered huge gas in the Bay.

Petrobangla had floated offshore bidding rounds without any survey in 2008, 2012 and 2016, but only few IOCs took part in the bidding and production-sharing contracts (PSCs) could be inked only for four blocks.

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