The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

French energy giant Total SA will begin exploring for hydrocarbons in the Bay of Bengal from next month, official sources said this yesterday.

"The firm (Total SA) has submitted their work plans for seismic surveys in two offshore blocks in the Bay of Bengal, with a total surface of about 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 sq miles)" Energy and Mineral Resources Division Secretary A M M Nasir Uddin said.

In March this year, Total acquired the major stakes of UK-based Tullow Oil PLC in offshore blocks 17 and 18 and received approval of Energy Ministry to extend the exploration period stated in the production-sharing contract by three years until May 5, 2009.

The acquisition has left Tullow with a 32 per cent stake, US-based Okland Oil Co with 8.0 per cent, while Total holds the remaining 60 per cent in the offshore blocks.

Total SA will also drill one exploratory well to a depth of at least 3,000 metres (9,840 ft) in the Bay of Bengal to find new gas reserves in the structure.

There is a prospect of several trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in blocks 17 and 18, as neighbouring Myanmar's gas blocks are located alongside these two offshore blocks, the officials said.

Total SA also has a 31 per cent stake in Myanmar's Yadana natural gas project in the Andaman Sea from which the French firm-the world's fourth-largest Western oil group-has generated US$499 million in taxes for that country.

Tullow has so far drilled only one exploration well in a block and invested US $7.0 million, officials said.

The government divided the exploration sites into 23 blocks, including seven offshore, in 1993.

The country has 13.54 trillion cubic feet of proven and recoverable gas reserves but likely to face a gas shortage by 2011, when current reserves will be exhausted, they officials added.