Govt blocks all Chevron acts

The government has upheld the Petrobangla's stand to block all activities of Chevron, the US oil giant for transferring its shares to a Chinese consortium named Himalaya Energy Co.
The Energy Division on Thursday has taken the decision to uphold the Petrobangla's plea as the world giant failed to match all practices and norms in energy industry as per production sharing contract (PSC).
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and Petrobangla's officials were present at the meeting with Energy Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury in the chair.
The meeting said Chevron should transfer all its shares as like Occidental and UNICAL.
Government officials are concerned as Himalaya has established its office in Dhaka without taking any permission from the government.
"As per the production sharing contract (PSC), the US oil giant would have to take permission for transfer of shares to the Chinese company, but it has not yet applied for such transfer," officials said.
Petrobangla, the state-owned Oil and Gas Corporation has written a letter to the Board of Investment (BOI) and Joint Stock Companies and Firms (JSCF) to block all its activities for transferring its shares to a Chinese consortium named Himalaya Energy Co. Ltd.
Chinese consortium is owned by China ZhenHua Oil Co. and CNIC Corporation Ltd. Again, government officials are concerned as Himalaya has established its office in Dhaka without taking any permission from the government.
In October 14 last year, Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, energy, and mineral resources, had told the media that the Bangladesh government had offered to buy all the natural gas assets of Chevron in Bangladesh.
"We are interested in buying the assets. It will be a big opportunity for us to have access to the entire production of the three gas fields," he had said.
Chevron operates three gas fields in the country-the Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulvibazar gas fields-and sell its production to state-owned Petrobangla.
The three gas fields have a total production capacityof 1550.6 mmcfd out of the country's total gas production of 2669.9 mmcfd from 21 gas fields.  
The gas fields contribute around 58 per cent of the country's total gas production.   To strike the best deal with Chevron, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has also directed Petrobangla to appoint an international consultancy firm to evaluate the value of assets in three gas fields. PMO has already given the go-ahead to a proposal for acquiring US oil giant Chevron's assets in Bangladesh worth an estimated $1.5 billion.   
Petrobangla informed the meeting that without hampering the production of the Chevron fields we need to stop their share transfer.
Petrobangla also apprised the policy makers that Petrobangla has adjusted US$ 48 million from Chevron's gas sales bill to prepare a fund for the Bangladesh employees of the US oil giant. Another USD 3 million will be adjusted from the next bill.
"As per the court order, we have created a fund of some US$ 51 million for profit share dues of Chevron's employees. The US company was supposed to be paid about US$ 48 million against its bill for March 2017. This amount has been deducted for the profit-sharing fund. The rest of the money will be adjusted from Chevron's next month's bill," Petrobangla official said.
Last month the US ambassador to Dhaka Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat requested the Energy Ministry to allow Chevron to quit smoothly three major gas fields of Bangladesh-Bibiyana, Moulavibazar and Jalalabad.