"We don't want to dodge the rules," said Niko Country Manager Brian Adolph, while admitting that the Niko-Bapex joint venture deal was 'unusual'.

Talking to The Daily Star in an interview arranged by Niko's media consultant Nayeemul Islam Khan, editor of Amader Samay, Brian argued that the company did not "break all the rules" in dealing with various issues in Bangladesh. He also tried to defend Niko's Chief Operating Officer (CEO) Hornaday, who has portrayed Bangladeshi politicians and people as aggressive and corrupt.

Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail on April 1 ran a report on "Bangladesh Blowout" in which reporter Geoffrey York tried to portray Niko as an "innocent victim" of Bangladesh's hostile and corrupt environment. The paper projected Niko as a "success" story, which has grown into a Canadian dollar 2.5 billion company from a 220 million dollar one in the last five years.

The report also referred to a recent story in The Daily Star on how Niko is flouting all rules and regulations, and regretted that the paper did not even bother to take Niko's version. But the Canadian daily itself did not take The Daily Star's version in its report. Regarding such a one-sided report, The Daily Star correspondent on April 8 sent an e-mail to the Globe and Mail managing editor (news), business editor and editorial sections seeking to know the paper's position with no response until yesterday.

On the quotes of the Niko CEO in Globe and Mail's report, Brian said his company is not happy with the way the quotes were placed. "They were placed a bit out of context. Mr Hornaday was talking about some of the people who are vindictive. We will respond to that to Globe and Mail ourselves," he said.

The Globe and Mail quoted Hornaday as saying that the atmosphere in Bangladesh is more vindictive than he had anticipated. "I've never experienced anything like it before. It is amazing. Anything happens and someone has to be hanged. It is like a national crisis".

Niko executives also said they failed to prepare themselves for the ferociously partisan climate of hardball politics.

The paper even claimed that Niko was being made "a scapegoat for jousting politicians and feuding officials" as the election is approaching. It said "critics" claim that the company had won the contract without a formal competition and some "factions" leaked "rumours" of corruption and incompetence, which "allowed" the government to prolong the price negotiation for gas purchase from Niko-Bapex's Feni gas field.

Hornaday was quoted as categorically saying, "We weren't prepared for that kind of aggressiveness, that really nasty stuff. It wasn't something we were accustomed to, even in India. Politicians are using us to discredit the government. In hindsight, we should have been better prepared to work with the press."

In the interview, The Daily Star pointed out that Niko had received unusual favours from both the previous Awami League government and the present four-party alliance government, that new modalities had to be framed violating rules and regulations to give Niko a joint venture deal with Bapex and access to three gas fields without any competitive bids. In this context, Brian was asked, which politician or official was being "vindictive" and in what way. He replied, "We think Bill (Hornaday) was referring to some people."

The CEO's shock at many happenings in Bangladesh should be viewed in Canadian perspective because when blowouts take place in Canada, the reactions are not like that in Bangladesh, Brian added.

The Daily Star then noted that Canada is 80 times bigger than Bangladesh with only 30 million people and that company's behaviour is completely different there. Brian agreed saying, "We may have missed the sensitivity (of the local perspective)."

The Daily Star also pointed out that it has been reporting and following Niko's unsolicited move for joint venture with Bapex since as early as 1999 and that barring occasional interactions, the company hardly responded to any questions from it. Brian said his company was initially too inexperienced in dealing with Bangladesh and following the Tengratila blowouts, it became too focussed with its operations and did not maintain contacts with the press. "But now we are open to communication," he said.

The Globe and Mail wrote: Corruption and bribery are commonplace in Bangladesh's media outlets, and Niko's competitors were savvy enough to cultivate the media. Local journalists say it is common to get cash or gifts from gas developers in Bangladesh, including the big multinationals. But Niko refused to distribute any envelopes of cash. "It is not the Canadian way," said Mr Sampson (president and chairman of Niko).

On this issue, The Daily Star asked Brian if Niko had refused to distribute any envelopes of cash, then how would it explain its giving a Tk 1 crore car to the then (later ousted) state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain?

Brian did not reply to this.

Regarding the remark "It is not the Canadian way," it was pointed out to Brian that in the past, another Canadian company-- Scimitar-- was ousted from Bangladesh and it lost an international litigation when Dhaka proved that the company had forged signatures of government high officials to sell its Bangladeshi oil and gas concerns.

Brian agreed that corruption can take place in any country.

Niko claimed to Globe and Mail that it has invested Canadian dollar 100 million (US dollar 87 million) in Bangladesh. But Brian said the company has spent US dollar 50 million so far.

Regarding its strategy of "blackmailing " to force the government to fix Feni field's gas price by stopping its production, Brian says it was not a blackmail but a way of drawing the government's attention.

"Niko is producing gas (from Feni field) but it's not getting paid. There is 25 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas in Feni, of which 13 bcf has been supplied... Niko is spending money. We can't change what happened in the past. But we have an agreement," he said.

"Our action was not against Bangladesh. We had the situation and we demanded attention. You can interpret it as a blackmail but our management wanted to draw attention."

Feni field's February shutdown ended with the energy ministry adviser's early March warning that the field would be taken over by Bapex if Niko did not resume operation there.

The Daily Star reminded Brian that in the first place, the government had to frame new modalities to favour Niko's joint venture with Bapex and the company knew there were many legal loopholes, which would one day lead it to the present situation. Again, when Niko started gas supply from Feni field in November 2004 without fixing gas price, it was already offered a price of $1.75 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) but it did not accept that. Now, after all these controversies, the company has in principle agreed on that price. So, whether it is fair to blame Bangladesh for its past behaviour.

"We started off with a price offer of more than $2.35 per mcf. The government started with $1.45. We have not yet initialled an agreement on a price of $ 1.75 per mcf, the Niko board will take a decision on this matter this week. If the board agrees, our chairman will file a letter of protest along with it," he said.

Brian added that the company had earlier submitted 20 letters on the price issue. Now, it is agreeing on the price as things should move on.