DHAKA: The signing of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) under the 3rd round bidding hangs in the balance as the US based ConocoPhillips, which was awarded only two blocks although they were competing in eight blocks, recently informed the government that it wants to sign the PSC on all the eight blocks.
The 3rd round offshore bidding opened during the last caretaker regime on 22 offshore blocks. A total of seven International Oil Companies (IOCs) submitted their bid documents on nine blocks. The ConocoPhillips was competing in eight blocks and the Tullow was competing in only one block.
Recently, the ConocoPhillips wrote a letter to the secretary, energy division, reiterating their earlier position about signing of the PSC on all the eight blocks for which they were competing. They did not drop any word about the signing of the PSC on the two blocks.
Following the ConocoPhillips' letter, the US ambassador in Dhaka met the Petrobangla chairman Prof Hossain Mansur and urged him to award all the eight blocks in favour of the ConocoPhillips, the source said.
An evaluation committee headed by Dr. Moqbul Elahi recommended awarding eight blocks in favour of the ConocoPhillips and one block in favour of the Tullow.
After the declaration of the bid result Myanmar and India lodged protest against the third round bidding on the plea that a number of blocks overlapped their territory.
In view of the neighbours' protest, the government decided to put off the competitive process on all the disputed blocks and approved the award of two blocks in favour of the ConocoPhillips and one block in favour of the Tullow.
Following the government's decision the Petrobangla, country's lone hydrocarbon management organization, invited both the ConocoPhillips and the Tullow to sit across the table for negotiations, which ended in the first half of the last month.
At the negotiation table, the US oil company expressed their willingness to sign the PSC on all the eight blocks for which they was competing.
The Petrobangla negotiation team explained the difficulties in signing the PSC without demarcation of maritime boundary with Myanmar and India. They were also told that the government had taken initiative to resolve the maritime boundary issue and Dhaka had already sought the UN arbitration in this regard.
But the negotiation team of the ConocoPhillips left the country without saying 'yes' or 'no' to the government decision of awarding the two blocks.
The energy division informed the highest level of the administration about the latest development on the 3rd round bidding and sought policy direction in this regard. But till the day, the energy division did not receive any directives from the highest level of the administration, the source added.
The ConocoPhillips was competing in blocks 10, 11, 12, 17, 15, 16, 20 and 21. But the government awarded them blocks 10 and 11 only.