"We had the target to go for the bidding by December this year. But we had to defer it on logical grounds," Energy Advisor Mahmudur Rahman said.

Sources concerned said the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) has accepted the proposal of Petrobangla for floating tender for carrying out non-exclusive speculative seismic survey which will be conducted as part of preparations for the 3rd round bidding.

The EMRD has formed a committee to formulate the guidelines and got approval from the foreign ministry for determining international maritime boundary. The committee, headed by Ehsan ul Fattah, additional secretary of the EMRD, has been asked to complete its works by the end of this month.

Petrobangla, the state-run oil, gas and mineral corporation, will float tender for non-exclusive speculative seismic survey by October 31.

The sources said after floating the tender for the non-exclusive seismic survey, the Petrobangla will initiate a step to withdraw the court's injunction on signing any new PSC.

At the same time, they said, the publication for the bidding, evaluation procedures and amendment to the model PSC will be finalised.

Sources concerned said Petrobangla will give 45 days timeframe after floating the tender for the 3rd round bidding. The PSCs will be signed in the next 45 days after completing the evaluation and negotiations.

"It is possible to complete all the procedures in 90 days with maintaining total transparency," Mahmudur Rahman told BDNEWS.

However, energy specialist Prof Nurul Islam said that the government should not go for a hurried bidding and signing of PSCs immediately before the general elections.

"The government must invite an open debate on our achievements from the previous PSCs. Then the government should go for the 3rd round bidding," said Prof Islam, director at the Appropriate Technology Institute of the Buet.

He said he doesn't see eligible people in the country who can negotiate in the bidding protecting the national interests.

"We can't leave the country's interests to some bureaucrats of Energy Ministry and Petrobangla," he told BDNEWS.

Officials at Petrobangla said the upcoming bidding for oil-gas exploration will be conducted only for the Bay of Bengal. "This time the size of the blocks will be smaller than the previous blocks," said a Petrobangla official.

He informed that previous four blocks (15, 19, 20 and 21) will be divided into eight blocks. The position of the blocks will be within 80-85 nautical miles.

There are proposals for creating several more blocks along block 21 following the offshore blocks of Myanmar in the east. These blocks could be within economic zone of 200 nautical miles.

"However, demarcation of blocks and their number will be determined only after getting the results of non-exclusive speculative seismic survey," the official told BDNEWS.

The EMRD expects that companies of USA, Europe, India, South Korea, Malaysia and China will take part in the 3rd round bidding.

The ONGC and GAIL of India and several other companies of South Korea and China have expressed their willingness to take part in the offshore oil, gas exploration in Bangladesh.