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Australian oil and gas company Santos has teamed up with Bapex to carry out offshore drilling in Magnama structure in the Bay of Bengal.
Santos would have the majority stake of 51 per cent stake in the joint venture (JV), while the country's lone oil and gas exploration company Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) will have 49 per cent.
"Bapex board of directors has recently given go-ahead to the project for joint exploration of oil and gas in the Bay," Bapex managing director Md Atiquzzaman told the FE on Thursday.
A final deal would be signed after a legal vetting and clearance from the cabinet committee concerned, he added.
Santos and Bapex inked a 'confidentiality agreement' in January for forming the JV to conduct drilling in the offshore Magnama structure.
Mr Atiquzzaman said Bapex has never conducted oil and gas exploration offshore. Besides, it has not worked with any international oil company (IOC) on joint venture earlier.
To date, Bapex has inked only one 'controversial' JV with Canadian Niko Resources to develop some 'abandoned' onshore gas-fields, including Feni and Tengratila, said officials.
However, gas production and exploration from the Niko-operated fields has been suspended for around a decade following a row over payment for gas and compensation for gas-field blowouts.
Bapex was a 'sleeping' partner in the Niko-Bapex JV and had a carried-over stake of 20 per cent, while the remaining 80 per cent was with Niko.
Bapex has so far drilled onshore gas wells in the gas-fields, either owned by itself or different state-run gas marketing and distribution companies.
The organisation currently has seven gas-producing fields across the country, from which it produces around 106 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas against the fields' overall capacity of 143 mmcfd.
Bapex's natural gas production is only 3.80 per cent of the country's overall natural gas output of around 2,700 mmcfd, according to Petrobangla data as on May 11.
Santos was seeking a partner to initiate drilling in Magnama structure over the past several years, and Bapex came up with necessary response, said a senior officer of the state-owned Petrobangla.
The Australian firm has planned to drill an appraisal well in offshore Magnama structure immediately after getting the final approval over the JV.
Magnama structure is located within Block-16 areas, where the Sangu well, now remains shut, is located.
Santos' predecessor - the UK-based Cairn Energy - discovered natural gas presence in Magnama, penetrated by a single exploration well around eight years ago.
The currently-mapped mean gas initial in place (GIIP) for Magnama is 1.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) with considerable further upside in flank plays of around 2.1 Tcf, a company source said.
The depth of water in Magnama ranges to 20 metres from the nearby onshore Kutubdia Island, he said.
Cairn Energy drilled an exploration well in Magnama in 2007-08, and subsequently carried out 213 line kilometres 3D seismic survey in early 2010.
Interpretation of the survey indicated natural gas presence in Magnama structure that consisted of a number of stacked structural stratigraphic reservoirs with at least four zones marginally intersected in Magnama-1 discovery well, the Petrobangla official said.
Santos currently owns 100 per cent stake of the Magnama structure in Block-16, following acquisition of Cairn Energy's interests in Bangladesh in November 2010.
The country's entire natural gas production now comes from the onshore gas-fields after the closure of Santos-operated offshore Sangu gas-field in October 2013.
source: http://www.sylhettimes.com/2016/05/12/santos-ties-up-with-bapex-for-offshore-drilling/
Santos would have the majority stake of 51 per cent stake in the joint venture (JV), while the country's lone oil and gas exploration company Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) will have 49 per cent.
"Bapex board of directors has recently given go-ahead to the project for joint exploration of oil and gas in the Bay," Bapex managing director Md Atiquzzaman told the FE on Thursday.
A final deal would be signed after a legal vetting and clearance from the cabinet committee concerned, he added.
Santos and Bapex inked a 'confidentiality agreement' in January for forming the JV to conduct drilling in the offshore Magnama structure.
Mr Atiquzzaman said Bapex has never conducted oil and gas exploration offshore. Besides, it has not worked with any international oil company (IOC) on joint venture earlier.
To date, Bapex has inked only one 'controversial' JV with Canadian Niko Resources to develop some 'abandoned' onshore gas-fields, including Feni and Tengratila, said officials.
However, gas production and exploration from the Niko-operated fields has been suspended for around a decade following a row over payment for gas and compensation for gas-field blowouts.
Bapex was a 'sleeping' partner in the Niko-Bapex JV and had a carried-over stake of 20 per cent, while the remaining 80 per cent was with Niko.
Bapex has so far drilled onshore gas wells in the gas-fields, either owned by itself or different state-run gas marketing and distribution companies.
The organisation currently has seven gas-producing fields across the country, from which it produces around 106 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas against the fields' overall capacity of 143 mmcfd.
Bapex's natural gas production is only 3.80 per cent of the country's overall natural gas output of around 2,700 mmcfd, according to Petrobangla data as on May 11.
Santos was seeking a partner to initiate drilling in Magnama structure over the past several years, and Bapex came up with necessary response, said a senior officer of the state-owned Petrobangla.
The Australian firm has planned to drill an appraisal well in offshore Magnama structure immediately after getting the final approval over the JV.
Magnama structure is located within Block-16 areas, where the Sangu well, now remains shut, is located.
Santos' predecessor - the UK-based Cairn Energy - discovered natural gas presence in Magnama, penetrated by a single exploration well around eight years ago.
The currently-mapped mean gas initial in place (GIIP) for Magnama is 1.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) with considerable further upside in flank plays of around 2.1 Tcf, a company source said.
The depth of water in Magnama ranges to 20 metres from the nearby onshore Kutubdia Island, he said.
Cairn Energy drilled an exploration well in Magnama in 2007-08, and subsequently carried out 213 line kilometres 3D seismic survey in early 2010.
Interpretation of the survey indicated natural gas presence in Magnama structure that consisted of a number of stacked structural stratigraphic reservoirs with at least four zones marginally intersected in Magnama-1 discovery well, the Petrobangla official said.
Santos currently owns 100 per cent stake of the Magnama structure in Block-16, following acquisition of Cairn Energy's interests in Bangladesh in November 2010.
The country's entire natural gas production now comes from the onshore gas-fields after the closure of Santos-operated offshore Sangu gas-field in October 2013.
source: http://www.sylhettimes.com/2016/05/12/santos-ties-up-with-bapex-for-offshore-drilling/
