Block 17, 18
Tullow sells 60pc of shares to Total Gas
Bdnews, Dhaka
Tullow Oil, operating in Bangladesh to explore gas, has sold 60 percent of its shares in block 17 and 18 in the Bay of Bengal to world famous energy company, Total Gas. The selling is now waiting for formal approval of the Petrobangla, the state-run oil, gas and mineral corporation. The Petrobangla and Tullow Oil confirmed the sale in Dhaka yesterday. Although the Petrobangla gave lease to joint venture group Auckland-Rexwood during the first round of bidding of the two blocks, it could not carry out any development work. Later, Tullow bought 92 percent share of the blocks. But the company could explore nothing after drilling an exploratory well in block 17. After several rounds of talks with Tullow over selling of the share, a high-level official of Total Gas visited Bangladesh and held talks with Energy Advisor Mahmudur Rahman to verify opinion of the government. The Bangladesh government responded positively, saying that the share selling would be possible following submission of specific exploration programme to start work in the blocks. The selling of 60 percent share to Total gas was finalised at Tullow headquarters in Dublin recently. However, Tullow remains operator of the blocks with 32 percent ownership. The remaining 8 percent go to Rexwood.
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