UPDATE:Bangladesh To Avoid Exploration In Disputed Territory
October 06 2009 - 10:49AM
Dow Jones News
Bangladesh on Tuesday played down concerns of mounting tensions
with neighbor Myanmar on a maritime dispute over a high profile oil
and gas exploration region.
Bangladesh's New Age newspaper earlier in the day reported that
Myanmar had warned ConocoPhillips (COP) against exploring a
Bangladesh offshore block the company won in a recent licensing
round.
Bangladesh officials said that along with the warning, Myanmar
had mobilized additional soldiers, sparking tension on the two
countries' border, the Press Trust of India news agency
reported.
"This is an old dispute between us. We are not aware of any
troop movement by Myanmar, with regard to this dispute at least," a
senior official at Bangladesh's ministry of foreign affairs told
Dow Jones Newswires.
He said Bangladesh would take care to avoid trespassing on
disputed territory, even if it means modifying the exploration
blocks to exclude regions claimed by Myanmar.
"We are showing respect to Myanmar's maritime claims -
regardless of whether they can be claimed under law, we will not
infringe them," he said.
Bangladesh will direct winners of oil acreage, including
ConocoPhillips, to avoid exploration activity in the disputed
areas, said Muqtadir Ali, chairman of state-run Petrobangla. "We
need to get the exact coordinates of the so-called disputed
boundaries to do that," he said. "We are yet to sign the production
sharing contract with the companies; we will sort of these issues
before signing."
Bangladesh wants to explore its offshore regions to secure
future energy supplies, but being geographically sandwiched between
India and Myanmar, faces competing interest from its two neighbors
for a large chunk of the maritime territory.
"There are some concerns on this issue...but from our side (the
energy ministry), we are proceeding with allocation of blocks to
the two companies," Bangladesh Energy Secretary Mohammad Mohsin
told Dow Jones Newswires.
Executives from the U.S. energy giant informed the Bangladesh
Oil, Gas & Mineral Corp., or PetroBangla, on Monday of the
letter of warning from Myanmar, the newspaper reported, citing
sources present at the meeting. PetroBangla had earlier awarded
rights to explore the block to ConocoPhillips. Ali declined to say
whether Petrobangla had been informed by Conocophillips about the
letter.
The ConocoPhillips executives also asked to discuss the matter
with Bangladesh's foreign ministry, the newspaper cited an unnamed
official as saying.
-By Gurdeep Singh, Dow Jones Newswires; 65-9386 9495;
gurdeep.singh@dowjones.com