The government is likely to float international bidding on March 10 for inviting foreign companies to explore oil and gas in the Bay of Bengal.

“We’re hopeful a good number of companies will participate in the bidding round,” chairman of Petrobangla Zanendra Nath Sarker told media recently, reports UNB.

In addition, it will be published on the websites of Implementation Monitoring and. Evaluation Division (IMED) and Bangladesh’s foreign mission abroad, they said.

Besides, the Petrobangla has a plan to hold a press conference on March 11 to brief the media about the plan and other nitty-gritty of the initiatives.

Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury told the media that the government will try to wrap up the bidding in next 6 months.

Many foreign companies have contacted the government and expressed their interest to join the bidding round, he said adding “Unless we conclude the bidding, it’s difficult to say how many companies are coming to participate in the bidding round.”

He also noted that the government will arrange different programmes as part of campaign for the offshore bidding.

Earlier, on July 26 last year, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the draft ‘Bangladesh Offshore Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC) 2023’ in order to invite international bidding for hydrocarbon exploration in offshore areas of the country.

The final approval for the draft Model PSC 2023 was given under a plan to invite the bidding round. It was speculated a September bid might be in the offing, but that eventually fell through as the election was too close and at that stage there was still too much uncertainty to be cleared up.

The Prime Minister’s Office has recently given a go-ahead to the Energy Division’s plan for inviting the bidding round in March.

Farhana Sharon, general manager of the Petrobangla, informed that the organisation is taking necessary steps to invite the bidding round as per approval of the PMO.

According to official sources, the new Model PSC was prepared as part of a plan to invite international bidding for offshore deep and shallow water gas blocks, to make Bangladesh more attractive to international oil companies.

Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque