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Niko pipeline scam probe starts

Sharier Khan
As the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has threatened to suspend funding the Dhaka Clean Fuel Project, the energy ministry has assigned Petrobangla to investigate Canadian company Niko's gas pipeline scam.
A three-member Petrobangla probe committee headed by the director (operations) yesterday
started work to report its findings in three days. ।
Tire Daily Star last week ran a report on the pipeline scam.
The investigators yesterday talked with officials of the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) from which Niko had taken pipes belonging to tire Asian Development Bank-funded Dhaka Clean Fuel Project
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(DCFP) and used those to set up a 19 kin illegal pipeline between Tengratila and Doarabazar in Sunamganj.
Sources said Titas planning department officials told Pctrobangla that they had flatly refused to give the pipes to Niko since those were procured for the DCFP with ADB financing, and also because these were low-pressure .pipes.
Documents' obtained - by. the probe body showed the Titas chief find given the pipes to Niko as per verbal directives from Pctrobangla high-ups.
Sources said the investigators are digging further into the scam that is a flagrant example of favouritism, breach of law and undermining national interest.
The Daily Star report irked the ADB that is financing the SI 13.4 million DCFP aimed at setting up a robust compressed natural gas (CNG) distribution system in the capital and its outskirts. The stakeholders include different gas companies under Petrobangla.
The ADB asked the energy ministry lute lust week to clarify If Niko had taken the pipes, and whether the government had the authority to give those tothecompany.
Ilie ADB also warned of suspension of funding the project for such irregularities.
"Major part of the clean fuel project funds still remains unutilsed. ’litas has procured pipes required for the project but is yet to make a substantial progress in implementing it. The GasTYansmission Company Ltd (GTCL) has just ordered procurement of the pipes and Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL) has not done anything yet." one source pointed out.
’litas had procured the pipes with foreign currency using ADB funds but Niko reportedly paid Utas in local currency for illegally taking the pipes.
"Whether they made the payment in foreign or local currency is irrelevant. What matters to us is they have no right to take Titas' pipes," noted the source.
The Dally Star reported that while Tengratila gas field was bunting during March- June, Niko was busy constnicting the 19 km pipeline to transmit Tengratila gas to Doarabazar.
Niko was planning to sell Tengratila gas in future to the under-construction Lafarge Cement factory or to the Jalalabad GasTYansmission Company Ltd (JGTCL) although it had no contract or even formal discussion with these parties.
The then state minister for energy (later ousted) Mosharraf Hossain forced Titas to give away the pipes
although those belonged to the DCFP
Niko reportedly paid its local pipeline contractorTk 8 crore for die pipeline construction, insiders said.
The company had no permission from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the government's Explosives Directorate, Pctrobangla, the JGTCL or even the Joint Management Committee comprisingBapcxandNikoofficiaLs.
•There is-no Gas Purchase Sales Agreefhent (Gl'Wugninst this pipeline. There is no instance of any privateoil companyatteniptingtoset up infrastructure to sell gas to any consumer outside die government since Pctrobangla holds die first rish« of refusal to purchase gas from tmy party. I ■
Just within one month of compli!-don of this pipeline, Niko's faulty drilling of a relief well led to the second blowout at the Tengratila gas field.This reiiefwell was being drilled to seal the well that had exploded earlier. Government investigators who found Niko’s drilling plan faulty also blamed delayed drilling of the relief well for the disaster.
Following the first blowout, Niko received around $20 million from its Insurer. An insider says Niko never told the government howit spent this money and what part of It was used in drilling the relief well. It used the money to do something it may need in future.
When Mosharraf had asked Utas’ to bowto Niko's desire, Titas wrote to Niko that these pipes could accommodate a gas flow pressure of only 150 PSI while Niko needed a pipeline that could cope with a pressure of 500 to 1,000 PSI.
Mosharraf then reasserted his authority and ordered Titas to give the pipes to Niko.’