A top Unocal official told The Daily Star that the company has been working on this idea for the last few months to overcome barriers to export of gas. The idea is to develop a 20-year plan that would have to be acceptable to all shades of political opinion to sustain any long term change of government and policies.

He said the consortium would consist of Unocal as 25 per cent stakeholder, Petrobangla 25 per cent, other oil companies in BangladeshShell, Chevron, Tullow etc., 25 per cent and financiers like the International Finance Corporation (IFC) or the Asian Development Bank (ADB) the rest.

The consortium may develop the gas pipeline system, strike the export agreement and ensure gas supplies at the border point from where an exclusively Indian consortium would receive the gas.

He admitted that there was political risk in the project as during the 20-year project life, there would be at least four elections and subsequent new governments in Bangladesh and India. A consortium was a solid idea to deal with political changes over a long time.

"The idea is different from Unocal's original export proposal," the official said, "we believe (if it is formed) this consortium would protect the export project from political risks." He added anyone who would try to hurt the consortium would hurt many nations including Bangladesh, thus giving it a solid foundation.

Explaining how this consortium would supplement the existing Unocal proposal for exporting gas, the Unocal official noted that Unocal would develop gas (from Bibiyana gas field) and sell that to Petrobangla and Petrobangla would take it to the border. "The Gas Transmission Company Ltd (of Petrobangla) and the ADB can jointly finance and develop this pipeline and the consortium would handle export," he elaborated.

The idea of the consortium, he believes, would appeal to other oil companies operating in Bangladesh as this would set up the basic pipe-line and legal infrastructure for export and would help those companies to easily decide on exporting their share of gas in future.

However, sources in Petrobangla and other oil companies said Unocal had not yet approached them with the idea. Petrobangla owns, on behalf of the state, the gas blocks while Shell operates the Sangu gas field and Chevron-Tullow are jointly exploring oil and gas in block 9.

A Petrobangla top official noted that according to the National Committee on Gas Utilisation report, there was no scope for gas export in the next several years.

A high official of Shell said Unocal had not discussed anything about any consortium. "We are not interested to do business by raising any controversy and we are not thinking about gas export," he said.

Meantime, the ADB and other donors have been asking the government to export gas to India. The ADB has tagged gas export as a precondition for the government to get a loan for the 700 million dollar fourth Natural Gas Development Project.

In 2001, Unocal proposed construction of a 30-inch diameter, 1363 kilometres (847 miles) pipeline with an initial capacity of exporting 500 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) from the Bibiyana gas field to Delhi in India. Unocal projects that it would give the country $3.7 billion total revenue over the 20-year project life and $500 to $700 million immediate foreign direct investment.

The country has been facing heavy pressure from the US, India and donors to export gas for the last several years.