Bangladesh's state-run oil, gas and mineral corporation Petrobangla has selected two international oil companies (IOCs) for hydrocarbon exploration in the Bay of Bengal, a senior official said on Saturday. "We will submit the evaluation report to the ministry by Monday to get government approval to go ahead for natural gas exploration according to schedule," said Jalal Ahmed, chairman of Petrobangla.
At present, Bangladesh is facing up to 200 million cubic feet shortages of gas each day and demand is rising. To ease pressure, the government floated tenders on February 15 and seven firms have submitted 22 bidding documents to explore natural gas and oil in 15 offshore blocks out of 28 blocks, officials said.
The IOCs will have to share 55 percent of their profit with Petrobangla and also pay corporate tax to the government at the rate of 40 percent. At the moment no IOCs pay any tax to the Bangladesh government, officials said. The IOCs are to get up to nine years for exploration in deep sea blocks and eight years for shallow sea blocks. Bangladesh's offshore area has been carved up into 30 blocks ranging from 2,611 square kilometers to 7,703 square km.