Bangladesh will sign a contract next month for a multi-client 2D offshore seismic survey in the Bay of Bengal with Norwegian-US joint venture TGS-Schlumberger, writes Amanda Battersby.

The proposed award by the Energy & Mineral Resources Division has already been approved by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Approved by the prime minister, the proposal summary has now been sent to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs,” a government official was quoted saying by local media.

“Now we are ready to sign a deal with TGS-Nopec and Schlumberger, to carry out a 2D seismic survey. We hope to be able to sign the contract in mid-August,” he said.

The survey, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, was deemed necessary after the nation’s maritime boundaries with Myanmar and India were settled.

State-owned national oil company Petrobangla, on behalf of the government, invited retenders last December for the 2D survey, which is touted as a precursor to the country’s next international licensing round.

Bids from five contractors — TGS-Nopec and Schlumberger, Chinese company BGP, Russian duo Dalmorneftegeophysica and Marine Arctic Geological Expedition and UK-based Spec Partners — were received when the bid exercise closed on 31 January.

The 2D data will be acquired in water depths ranging between 20 and 2500-plus metres.

Offshore blocks — potentially 12 deep-water and six shallow-water tracts totalling about 75,000 kilometres — are then expected to be offered in Bangladesh’s next international bid round.

Petrobangla plans to award a 10-year agreement and there will be 24 months for data acquisition, processing and interpretation.

The winning contractor will have the exclusive right to license the data from the 2D survey, which will be carried out at no cost to the government or Petrobangla.

The joint venture between TGS and Schlumberger was the recommended winner against four rival bids following the initial tender that closed in March 2015.

However, the Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources subsequently instructed Petrobangla to retender the contract, understood to have been a response to the low oil price environment.

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