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Govt invites Shell to ’sort out differences

By Shahrier Khan
The Energy Ministry has invited Shell Oil for a discussion on November 3 to "sort out differences" over the second round block bidding for oil and gas exploration, sources said.
The Shell last week warned the government that it would withdraw from bidding if the government stuck to The formula of "one block, one company" in the negotiation process instead of a "standard competitive formula."
The government began negotiations on October 22 for exploration of oil and gas in 12 exploration blocks in the country. Twenty foreign oil compa-
nies are bidding for the blocks.
On October 13, the Energy Ministry, shelving a report by the bidding evaluation committee. announced the "one block, one company” formula to select companies.
Tne announcement, took the participating international oil companies (IOCs) by surprise as they had earlier been told that it would be a competitive bidding.
Some five IOCs including Shell registered written protests with the government for "such an unfair" change in the terms and conditions of the bidding, the sources said.
Shell and a British company, Cairn had Jointly submitted six proposals for six blocks outlining an initial investment of 200 million US dollars.
The sources said that Shell Oil representatives walked out of a meeting with officials of the Energy Ministry on October 23 when they were offered Block No 10 instead of the six blocks. Later, the Ministry's Negotiation Committee called the representatives to discuss it again. At this stage. Shell submitted a protest letter to the Ministry.
Following these incidents, the Ministry sent a letter to Shell afterwards inviting it for a discussion to "sort out differences."
The sources further said that representatives of Shell Oil and its partner, Cairn Energy Plc of England, had informed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about the current block bidding negotiation process when she visited the Cairn Head Office in Edin-burgh on October 24.
The Prime Minister was told that Shell believed that the Shell-Cairn bid was originally ranked first by the bidding evaluation committee in at least four of the six blocks they had applied for.
Earlier, official sources had said that the "one block-one company" formula which was adopted to maximised participation In hydrocarbon exploration.
But Calm-Shell representatives said, 'Too many groupings will lead to fragmentation of effort by failing to create projects large enough to Justify the necessary long term commitment."
They also argued, "Conversely, a single monopoly grouping would leave the country and government badly exposed," and added, "the interests of Bangladesh would be best served by between two and four strong independent groupings of energy companies receiving the larger allocation of the bld round blocks."
They further noted that there were several companies in the bidding who were not very ■serious about hydrocarbon exploration.
They urged the government to take a "strong position" about selecting the committed" oil and gas companies which "re-ally have the potential to make things happen and will pay much greater attention to the social aspects of their involvement in Bangladesh."