Niko's latest drilling of well at the blown-out Tengratila gas field is an ill-conceived action that will lead to the abandonment of the gas field as it is not aimed at taming the fire, said energy experts and academicians at a seminar on Tengratila blowout yesterday.

The Tengratila field may meet the same fate as the blown-out Haripur gas field where gas has been burning for the last 50 years, the experts said at the seminar organised by National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Electricity and Port at the National Press Club.

The objective of drilling a relief well is to seal the original blown-out well but Niko is drilling its well at a location far off the original well, observed Prof Badrul Imam of Dhaka University (DU).

He criticised the energy advisor's earlier assurance that the relief well would be drilled by July 25 and said, "What is being done now in the name of 'mirror observation well' is like operating on a critical patient by a quack."

"The government has to take all the responsibilities if the gas field is to be declared abandoned, because it has not yet cancelled the joint venture agreement (JVA) with Niko," said Prof Hussain Monsur, chairman of DU Geology Department.

Bangladesh Regional Field Evaluation in Chhatak, Feni and Kamta in 2000 did not say in its report that these fields are to be abandoned, but in the JVA the government considered them as abandoned, Prof M Shamsul Alam, director, Institute of Energy Technology of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, said.

The report conducted by the institute also said though the JVA has the provision that there should be a joint account of Bapex and Niko, $4 million was deposited to Niko's account ignoring the share of benefits with Bapex.

Prof Alam expressed fear that the total gas structure in Tengratila field with a gas reserve of some 1,190 billion cubic feet worth more than Tk 25,000 crore has become inactive.

Speakers at the seminar blamed the political leaders and the bureaucrats who, they said, do not consider the national interest in signing contracts with the foreign companies.

Economics Professor Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University blasted the businessmen and the industrialists who consume the major portion of the gas but do not protest the imbalance contracts including the PSCs with the foreign companies.

National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Electricity and Port will soon go to the court challenging the JVA between Bapex and Niko Resources, the committee convenor engineer Shahidullah said.

"National Citizens Commission" headed by Dr Kazi Kholiquzzaman has been formed in a bid to review all the previous production sharing contracts, assess the total gas reserve in the country and formulate a strategy on how to make the best use of gas, Prof Abul Barakat, general secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) said.

Nuruddin Mahmud Kamal, former chairman of Power Development Board, Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary of Communist Party of Bangladesh, Workers Party President Rashed Khan Menon, former Petrobangla chairman SK Abdullah, Sylhet Division Development Action Forum convenor advocate Abed Raja, DU Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury also spoke at the seminar.