Scrap PSC provision that allows gas export: experts

Left-leaning politicians, economists and energy experts yesterday demanded omission of a provision from a government production sharing contract, that allows drilling companies to export gas extracted from offshore blocks in the Bay of Bengal.

Once implemented, the provision of the Offshore Model Production Sharing Contract (PSC)-2019 will act against national interest, they said at a dialogue organised by the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in the capital’s Mukti Bhaban.

The government has reintroduced the provision in the offshore model PSC, which was approved by the cabinet committee on economic affairs recently.

The government has a separate model PSC for onshore blocks, which still bars gas export. It had earlier included the export provision in the PSC in 2008, but it was discarded in the 2012 version, amid criticism. 

Bangladesh has 26 blocks in the Bay. Contracts for 22 of them have not been awarded yet.

At the event, economist Prof Anu Muhammad said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on different occasions had said the country will not export gas unless it has gas reserves for the next 50 years.

There is no official record that the country has reached to a 50-year gas stock now. Rather, the widely-publicised version is that the government is importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), saying the country has gas shortage, he said.

In the name of gas shortage, it is also constructing several coal-based power plants including the Rampal plant, which puts biodiversity of the Sundarbans at risk, as well as the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant which puts the country in danger, he said.

So, the prime minister should answer how her words are compatible with the Offshore Model PSC-2019 that keeps provision for gas export, Anu Muhammad added. 

He further alleged that laws are being made in such way which have established multi-national companies’ full authority over the country’s gas sector.

“And now, the government is creating a favourable environment for their gas export,” he remarked.

On September 28, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports will stage protest rallies all over the country, demanding omission of the provision and also protesting other activities against national interest, said Prof Anu, also member secretary of the committee.

He said the committee will stage divisional rallies to this end in coming months, starting on October 4 in Sylhet.

By approving the Offshore Model PSC, the government has accepted an “indemnity” law that will create scope for legitimising corruption, said economist Prof MM Akash.

The country would not have had to face gas crisis if the government developed local expertise in the sector, he said, urging the government to strengthen capacity of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited.

If the Offshore Model PSC is implemented in next few years, then the reality will be that the country is exporting its own gas while it is importing coal and LNG at higher price, said engineer Kollol Mustafa.

An all-out resistance has to be waged against it, “if we don’t want to put people’s lives and environment in danger and the economy at risk”, he said.

Saiful Haque, general secretary of Revolutionary Workers’ Party of Bangladesh, said the Offshore Model PSC has not been made public, which has kept people in the dark about the government’s intention.

Such “contract” was also done in the past to serve interests of local and foreign looters and commission-seekers, said CPB central leader Ruhin Hossain Prince.