Unocal, BAPEX sign production sharing contract with Bangladesh

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Unocal Corp. said April 3 that the government of Bangladesh has formally awarded block 7 to Unocal Bangladesh Ltd. and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd., the national exploration company, with the signing of a production-sharing contract. Unocal Bangladesh is a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Unocal Corp.

Unocal has proposed development of the Western Region Integrated Project that would include production from the Shahbazpur field and the government recently renewed a letter of intent with the company for project development.

Unocal expects to supply Bangladesh’s domestic market with natural gas from the Shahbazpur field, which may contain more than 400 billion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. The western region project would include a gas pipeline from Bhola to Khulna and development of approximately 350 megawatts of power from three generating plants in two phases.

As the gas markets and national demand expand beyond the capacity of the Shahbazpur field, Unocal expects to explore for natural gas resources on Block 7.

Unocal and its wholly owned subsidiaries have already identified potential gas resources of 5-7 trillion cubic feet in the northern part of the country.