The Bangladesh state-owned company Petrobangla and Russian state agency Gazprom also agreed to install two gas compressor stations by September, 2012. At a joint press briefing in the Secretariat recently on Wednesday, Prime Minister’s Power and Energy adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said Gazprom would drill some wells, install two compressors, train up human resources and launch a regional office here. Director General of the Gazprom Ivan Guleb and senior officials from both Russian and Bangladeshi sides were present at the briefing.Director General of Gazprom Ivan Guleb said Russia wants to strengthen the 40-year-long relations with Bangladesh through working in energy sector development of the country through a joint venture company. It would be the first step by the company to form a joint venture company with another state-owned company in the sub-continent, officials of the Petrobangla said. “The JVC would promote gas sector of the country,” Ivan Guleb said, adding that the company would start operating soon.
It would procure two state-of-the-art drilling rigs within one and a half months to start drilling activities from October, the Gazprom policymaker said. About installation of compressors, he said both sides would need further negotiations about the financial terms and conditions to install the compressor stations.He hoped that the terms and conditions be chalked out by September to install the compressors.The government has a plan to install the compressors at Muchi in Sylhet and Asuganj in Brahmanbaria as soon as possible as such initiatives were deferred several times before for a failure to reach to an common point on terms and conditions of Asian Development Bank for getting financial assistance. The Russian delegation would meet prime minister’s Sheikh Hasian today to express their interest to install the compressors and launch drilling activities here.
The Petrobangla would place 10 separate projects to Gazprom for energy sector development here, Petrobangla Chairman Prof Hossain Monsur said.Under the projects, the Petrobangla will drill four wells at Bangladesh Gas Field Company Limited (BGFCL) and Sylhet Gas Field Company Limited (SGFCL), he said.In March, the government decided to drill five development and work-over wells under a fast-track energy sector development programme devised earlier. During the briefing Tawfiq-e-Elahi said the government is preparing to explore oil and gas in onshore and offshore blocks.The adviser hoped that disputes over the maritime boundaries with India and Myanmar be resolved within two to three years.
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