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Govt eases production rules for oil companies

Star Business Report
The government has relaxed a number of conditions in the existing Production Sharing Contract 2012 model to encourage international oil companies to tap mineral resources in the Bay of Bengal.
The changes to the model came at a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs at the secretariat yesterday.
The international companies who are interested in Bangladesh's gas blocks in the Bay told the government that the existing PSC Model is very strict, and there are also risks associated with exploring gas blocks in the Bay, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said after the meeting.
"So, we have brought some changes to the model to encourage them to invest in the blocks," Muhith told reporters.
Bangladesh will now pay oil companies $1 more than the current prices for every 1,000 cubic feet of gas. It means an 18 percent increase in prices, proposed by the energy ministry. In the existing PSC-2012 model, designed for upcoming tender for deep-sea blocks, the price for 1,000 cubic feet of gas was fixed at $5.5.
The gas prices will also be increased every year by 2 percent, and the oil companies will be allowed to sell half of their share of the production to third parties without requiring Petrobangla's refusal to buy it.
Under the existing PSC-2012, the oil companies are allowed to sell all gas in their share to any company after the state-run oil company refuses to buy the gas.
The government also exempted international oil companies from paying corporate tax. Now Petrobangla will pay the taxes on behalf of the contractors.
The highest cost recovery in deep-sea blocks has been reset at 70 percent, which was at 55 percent in the current model.
The cabinet committee meeting, however, sent back a proposal to award the work to develop the Kaliakoir high-tech park in Gazipur to the winning bidder after a local partner of the bidder turned out to be a loan defaulter.
Muhith said the law ministry also raised some objections about the proposal. A decision will be taken later about consulting the ministry.
The central bank has informed the ICT ministry that a member of the Malaysia-based KTPC Consortium—Khansons Holdings Ltd—is not a loan defaulter as an institution.
But Khansons Textiles, in which two directors of Khansons Holdings have interests, was a defaulter, according to the ministry.