Bangladesh government should expedite the multi-client seismic survey in the Bangladesh maritime areas to attract foreign investment in hydrocarbon exploration, energy experts suggested in a webinar on Saturday.

“The multi-client survey work is very important to attract international oil companies (IOCs) in hydrocarbon exploration”, said eminent energy expert Prof Dr M Tamim while addressing a webinar on   “Deep & High-Pressure Zone Hydrocarbon Exploration Prospect in Bangladesh.”

Tamim, Dean of Faculty of Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said if there is no seismic data in hands, IOCs will not show interest to invest in hydrocarbon exploration.  

Bangladesh awarded the contract to TGS-SCHLUMBERGER JV, a European joint venture energy company, in April 2019.

The company is responsible to conduct the survey at its own cost to collect the seismic data from the country’s maritime areas and share its data free of cost with state-owned Petrobangla.

But according to Petrobangla, the company could not start the job because of the Covid-19 situation.

Former managing director of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Company Limited (Bapex) Mortuza Ahmad Faruque (Chisty) presented a keynote paper at the virtual seminar, organised by Energy and Power magazine with its editor Mollah Amzad Hossain in the chair.

Energy expert Dr. Badrul Imam, Petroleum Geologist and Former Vice President of UMC & Ocean Energy Mr. M Fariduddin, Professor of Department of Geology of Dhaka University Dr Anwar Hossain Bhuiyan also addressed the seminar.

The energy experts opined that there is a huge prospect of hydrocarbon exploration in the deep and high pressure zone in the country.

But the zones should be first identified and demarcated for exploration through proper survey, they said.

Prof. Badrul Imam said the country’s geologists are not confirmed about the possibility of gas reserves in the high pressure and deep zones.

“But if the 3D surveys are conducted, it would help determine the exact position of the gas availability although the job is a risky one”, he said.

 Mortuza Ahmad Faruque said so far 10 deep drilling was conducted of which gas was discovered in 4 of them.

He said deep drilling should be conducted more as the country’s existing reserve of gas will be depleted in the next 10 years.