The government has decided to give full autonomy to the Bangladesh Petroleum Institute (BPI) to strengthen research and training in the oil and gas sector.

The cabinet recently approved a draft law, Bangladesh Petroleum Institute Law, 2003, that plans to empower the BPI to create its own fund.

The BPI will retain its own earnings, government grants, finances for research from Petrobangla's SEE PAGE 11 COL 7 FROM PAGE 12

production sharing contract (PSC) fund, government loans and funds from other sources.

A 10-member governing board will run the institution. Led by the energy secretary, the board will also include chairmen of thePetrobangla and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, director general of Bangladesh Geological Survey, officials from energy and finance ministries, representatives from BUET, Dhaka University and Bangladesh Geological Association. The BPI director general will be its member-secretary.

The BPI was set up as a research-oriented project in 1981 under the energy ministry with support from the UNDP and NORAD.

The BPI set up its own building at Uttara with a computerised data processing centre, classrooms, an auditorium, a conference room and other facilities at a cost of Tk 19.6 crore.

The BPI infrastructure is used for processing seismic line data for assessment of oil and gas resources.

As per a decision by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) on July 20, 1998 seeking to convert the BPI into an autonomous body within five years, the energy ministry framed the draft law and placed it before the cabinet on July 28.