Regional Editor Indian-Sub Continent Regional Manager - Ian Blakely
Read bio |
|
|
|
|
Bangladesh - License Round Promotion
|
|
The Geology of Bangladesh
The Bengal Basin is divided up into a series of sub-basins/troughs and regional highs. The onshore part of the Bangladeshi sector of the basin is made up of the Surma Sub-basin, which is bounded to the south by the Tangail-Tripura High. This separates the Surma Sub-basin from the Faridpur Trough, which extends offshore into the Indian sector of the basin. The Barisal-Chandpur High separates the Faridpur Trough from the Hatia Trough, which is the principal depocentre of the Bangladeshi offshore sector. more |
 |
Recent Exploration in Bangladesh
Exploration activity has predominantly been conducted in the east of the country, with the west and the offshore remaining relatively under-explored. Only 110 exploration wells have been drilled to date – 65 of which are New Field Wildcats, with only 13 being drilled in the offshore – and a total of 25 discoveries have been made. As such, the country has a highly impressive 38% success rate. more |
|
|
Licensing Round Information
With the High Court having partially vacated an injunction on the signature of Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) with foreign oil companies in July 2006, the Bangladesh Government was hopeful of launching a Third Licensing Round before the end of the year. – a total of 27 offshore blocks having been tentatively identified for competitive bidding. The court injunction has only been lifted for offshore acreage and remains in effect concerning the signature of PSCs for onshore acreage.
The licensing round, however, is not expected to transpire until later in 2007 – an interim government installed at the end of October to oversee the run-up to elections in January having collapsed and the country placed under a state of emergency following a series of violent protests. A new interim government was installed in mid-January with the promise of holding elections “as soon as possible” and the shooting of a non-exclusive seismic survey prior to launching the bid round has been deferred in favour of a quick announcement and ‘Promotional Roadshows’ in London, Houston, Singapore and Dhaka.
It is believed that Petrobangla has drawn-up 20 new blocks – the remaining seven being created by dividing the open areas of Blocks 19, 20 and 21 and including acreage partially relinquished from Block 17 & 18. Some modifications are also understood to have been made to the draft PSC with respect to gas clauses – the revised PSC not yet finalized.
Although the licensing round will focus on offshore acreage extending up to 200 nautical miles into the Bay of Bengal, the Government needs to address maritime boundary issues with both India and Myanmar before the official demarcation of such. Both countries have recently been accused by the Bangladesh authorities of encroaching into its territorial waters in exploring for hydrocarbons – most notably the NEC-DWN-2004/1 (D22) and NEC-DWN-2004/2 (D23) deep water blocks offered in India’s Sixth Round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP VI).
List of blocks on offer will be available soon.
 |
|
|
|
Maps:
GEPS Reports:
The flagship IHS E&P reporting package. GEPS is established as the market leader in the provision of definitive, up-to-date, accurate and detailed information
PEPS Reports: PEPS is a powerful, searchable online service providing constantly updated upstream economic, fiscal and commercial data and analysis.
|
|
|
|
Introducing the Indian-Sub Continent Regional Manager for IHS: Ian Blakeley
Ian Blakeley is regional manager of the Far East IV (Indian Sub-Continent) team for IHS. Based in the company’s Tetbury, U.K. office, he manages a team of professionals who acquire, compile and report E&P information regarding the Indian Sub-Continent. This data is then reported in daily, weekly, monthly and annual reports, as well as in maps and a global database.
Blakeley joined IEDS (now part of IHS) in 1996 as a wells and contracts analyst for North Africa. With more than 15 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, he previously worked offshore as a data engineer and well site geologist for Exlog (now part of Baker Hughes Inteq). A graduate of the University of Keele in the U.K., Blakeley received his bachelor’s degree in geology with honours.
Contact Ian at: ian.blakeley@ihs.com | |
|
|
|