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'Unwilling' Petrobangla signs 'lucrative' MoU

Korea Consortium offers to invest $7 billion

Star Report
Petrobangla yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Korea Consortium led by obscure and inexperienced Korean company Luxon Global that wants to invest $ 7 billion in power and coal sectors in Bangladesh in the next few years.
Other members of the consortium are Korcs, Kepco and Posco.
Sources said an unwilling Petrobangla was made to sign the deal under pressure from the higher authorities almost in the way the past government had made the controversial Niko agreement.
Venture capital company Luxon Global's chief made his first visit to Bangladesh in 2005 and signed an MoU with energy ministry saying it would invest $1 billion in energy sector, and was seeking a coal mining licence. But follow up inquiries by the government revealed that Luxon's official address in Seoul is non-existent.
Yesterday, Luxon Global's President Seung Youb Lee signed the MoU on behalf of Korea Consortium at Petrobangla office. Jalal Ahmed, chairman of Petrobangla, signed the deal where Korean Ambassador in Bangladesh Suk-Bum Park was present, among others.
Mouzzam Hossain, local agent of Luxon Global, told The Daily Star that the company has a plan to set up a 1,000 megawatt (MW) coalbased power plant under the MoU signed yesterday.
"We cannot say exactly when the final agreement will be signed ip this connection, but this is the start of the journey," he said. The MoU with Petrobangla is a followup of another MoU signed between the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea and the energy ministry of Bangladesh on November 15 last year.
He also said both the sides will exchange delegations to share each other's experience in the field of energy under the new MoU. "The parties will exchange technical personnel to receive professional
training/studies. Korea Consortium is willing to grant scholarship to officials of Petrobangla for such training/studies as the parties will further agree," he said.
Executive Vice-president Sang Yoep Lee, Senior General Manager Chui Hee Hyun and General Manager of Luxon Yang Suk Joo, Group Leader Jea Seok Kim and Manager of Posco Woo Suk Choi, Director General Seok Jin Song and Assistant Manager of Kores Yeon Hwa Kim were present at the deal signing ceremony on behalf of Korea Consortium.
BACKGROUND
Since 2005-06, "one-man” company Luxon had been lobbying hard to get a hand on Dighipara and some ring-fenced gas fields with Bapex. Dighipara is one of the five identified areas where geologists have earlier detected coal deposits, with the primary indication of a proven 100- million tonne coal deposit and 600 tonnes of probable deposit.
FROM PAGE 16
In September 2006, Kores seconded Luxon's proposal specifically proposing that it was interested in Dighipara coal zone. In response, Petrobangla sent letters in December and in January and February 2007. But there had been no response. Rather, the last letter bounced back with the remark "unknown". Petrobangla sent the last mail to Kores in March with no response to it.
Both Luxon and Kores categorically sought stake in Dighipara coal zone from 2006. Though follow up correspondence by the government revealed that these are 'shell' companies, it had been entertaining their proposals all along.
In July 2007, Luxon submitted to Petrobangla a data sheet for joint work proposal saying that it has formed a consortium of companies. The consortium has designated Luxon as the communicationchannel.
Meanwhile, the Korean government also expressed interest in a government- to- government understanding on energy sector cooperation. /V draft MoU sent by the Korean government specifically referred to Dighipara and coal mining exploration licence. Bangladesh however suggested that the MoU would not specify any licence or coal zone as it would cover a broad spectrum of energy cooperation.
The energy ministry on February' 10 this year, January 9 and December 19 last year wrote to Petrobangla asking for its opinion on the Korean proposal for the joint venture. The latest Petrobangla reply to these letters was given on February’ 25 and its subject was “Draft MoU between Petrobangla and the Korean Consortiums." Petrobangla responded to this suggestion negatively.
A source quoting his business connections in South Korea said Luxon is a one-man show where a handful of people are trying to build a business using their high connections in the Korean government. The Luxon chief apparently used his connections to obtain courtesy letter of interest from some reputed Korean companies and submitted those to Bangladesh government to create a positive impression.
Luxon is not the only obscure company that made proposals for massive investments in Bangladesh. In May 2005, one Vulcan Energy, USA, proposed to invest $1.6 billion in fertiliser, coal and power sectors. In 2004, US-Irish joint venture Cadogan-Manning proposed to build 450 MW Meghnaghat-3 power project. None of these companies has any experience in energy sector and they did not follow up their proposals.