Bureaucrats bring BAPEX, Petrobangla to their knees

The regulatory authority of the country’s oil, gas and mineral resources Petrobangla and its 13 enteritis are highly technical but they are driven by the government’s ordinary bureaucrats.

Even with no experience in oil and gas exploration Bangladesh Civil Service (admin) officers have been serving as Petrobangla chairman for a long time.

Out of 31 Petrobangla chairmen since 1972 ten were geologists and petroleum engineers and 21 were the government senior bureaucrats including military officer.

Managing Director of five companies including highly technical Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company BAPEX under Petrobangla are appointed without any experience in the field.

Experts say the irresponsible authorities of the non-technocrat Energy and Mineral Resources Divisions officials of Petrobangla and Bapex are major issues of concern and the country is now facing acute energy crisis due to inefficient officials’ incapability of taking decisions.

Mining expert and geologist Professor Badrul Imam called it overlordship on Petrobangla and BAPEX by manpower with no technical expertise.

He said it is very surprising that all decisions are made by government bureaucrats on high technical petroleum science.

Petroleum engineering is a matter that includes geology, petroleum science and geo-physics. That’s why, globally International Oil Companies (IOC) are run as an independent institute, he said.

A geologist or a petroleum engineer can make a correct decision quicker than an ordinary bureaucrat. Petrobangla and BAPEX could not develop as an independent institution due to the overlordship of bureaucrats, added Badrul Imam.

Apart from Badrul Imam, The Business Post spoke with several geologists, petroleum engineers, former and current officials of Petrobangla and Bapex. All of them said unscientific decisions imposed by bureaucrats with no technological know-how put the technocrats in trouble.

Again, bureaucrats do not accept technocrats and which is why the country is suffering from energy shortage leading to frequent load shedding.

Who runs energy sector?

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is now the Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. Tawfiq-e- Elahi Chowdhury has been serving as Prime Minister’s Energy and Power Advisor since 2009.

Tawfiq-e- Elahi joined the government administration as a Pakistan Civil Service (CSP) officer and retired as a secretary in 2000.

Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury is reportedly the highest decision-maker in the energy and power sector although he does not have any technical knowledge about oil and gas exploration.

Nasrul Hamid, the State Minister for the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, who has been in charge since 2014, is from Economics background.

Meanwhile, the Energy Division headed by a Senior Secretary Mahbub Hossain was from Social Science background. He was appointed last January.

Recently Mahbub Hossain told the reporters in an event: “We don’t get enough time. We need to understand the high technical issues like the energy sector. This is a big obstacle for the development of oil and gas exploration.”

The analysis found that from 2000 to 2022, 12 secretaries of the Energy Division served, on average, less than one and a half years. Meanwhile, there are allegations against several secretaries for wrong and controversial decisions in oil and gas exploration.

After the Senior Secretary, there are four Additional Secretaries in the Energy Division. Everyone is senior to Petrobangla Chairman.

A former senior secretary of the Energy Division told this correspondent that first of all, Petrobangla and BAPEX should be strengthened to enable the energy sector.

Petrobangla and Bapex officials have left their jobs and gone abroad and are working there with high salaries with reputation just for inexperienced bureaucratic domination.

However Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, the Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor feels that managing the energy sector requires more managerial knowledge than technical knowledge.

He told The Business Post that the Energy Division does not have overlordship on Petrobangla as an authorities concerned oversees the works to ensure transparency.

Who runs Petrobangla

Petrobangla’s headquarters is in a high-rise building at Karwan Bazar in the capital. The company is responsible for exploration, extraction and research on oil gas and mineral resources in offshore and onshore blocks in the country.

The Petrobangla data shows around 70 percent of natural gas was discovered before 1971 by British Company Shell Oil and PPL. After the Liberation War several gas fields including Bibiyana were discovered by 90s.

Experts say there has been stagnation in oil and gas exploration since the beginning of this century. Petrobangla has drilled only 24 exploration wells in the last two decades. Apart from Bhola Shahbazpur, Petrobangla did not have any major success.

Petrobangla started importing LNG from 2018 due to lack of gas. The data shows a total of 169 officials are working in Petrobangla. Current Chairman Nazmul Ahsan joined as the 31st Chairman in December 2021.

BCS Admin Nazmul Ahsan was the Deputy Commissioner of Khulna before joining Petrobangla.

Shaonawaz Parvez, General Manager (PSC) of Petrobangla, said non-technocrats are appointed at the end of their service life in Petrobangla companies as top executives.

They are more interested in changing their own lot rather than the state-run company. He said Petrobangla Chairman should be appointed from among geologists.

Petrobangla Chairman Nazmul Ahsan has acknowledged that the limitation of technical knowledge is a major concern for Petrobangla.

‘’I feel good as a Chairman of Petrobangla and also enjoying my works. I am learning a lot while working,” he said.

Why was Petrobangla set up?

According to Petrobangla, the Bangladesh Mineral, Oil and Gas Corporation (BMOGC) was formed in 1972 by presidential order to explore and develop the country’s oil, gas and mineral resources and in 1974 it was renamed as ‘Petrobangla’ by the president’s order.

At that time, Petrobangla Chairman’s status was equivalent to a Senior Secretary who was directly responsible to the Energy Minister. Geologist AYM Habibur Rahman was appointed as the first chairman of Petrobangla and served till 1976.

During his time, the country’s first offshore oil and gas exploration began and the Kutubdia Gas Field was discovered, Petrobangla said.

Besides, several IOCs started offshore-onshore oil and gas exploration through the international bidding rounds.

Khandaker Mushtaq by a presidential order demoted the position of the Petrobangla Chairman to Additional Secretary from that of Senior Secretary in 1975. The same provision was made in the Gazette of 1989.

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) Member and Geologist Maqbool E Elahi Chowdhury said demotion of Petrobangla’s chairman was a historic mistake.

Bangabandhu was able to understand that the ordinary bureaucrats were big obstacles in the way of technical works. But no subsequent government has tried to understand it.

Geologist and former Chairman of Petrobangla Mosharraf Hossain told The Business Post that Efficiency of Chevron Bangladesh run by entirely indigenous workforce has highly improved.

But the state-owned companies including Petrobangla, Bapex and BGFCL have almost turned their backs on oil and gas exploration and extraction simply because of lack of independence and administrative authority, he said.

Citing the example of India’s state-run company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Malaysia’s PETRONAS, Mosharraf Hossain said there is no chance for ordinary bureaucrats to become the chairman of these two companies. Both the chairmen directly report to their respective Prime Ministers. As a result ONGC and PETRONAS have already established international exploration company.

From his own experience, the geologist of BAPEX said for any project one has to give repeated presentations to the Ministry. Senior officials, ministers, secretaries have to be convinced on every point.

Chairman of Petrobangla is an ordinary bureaucrat and he has to understand the same way. Most projects fail due to lack of understanding.