TOTAL has discovered hydrocarbon in Cox's Bazar

Total, the French oil company, has discovered hydrocarbon in Cox's Bazar and in the Bay of Bengal much to the relief of energy-starvedgreater Chittagong and the country as well, officials said Thursday.

The company told the Petrobangla Tuesday that it was able to locatethe 'presence' of hydrocarbon in block nos. 17 and 18, which alsocover part of the St Martin islands in the Bay.

"The company said it has found hydrocarbon in these structures, which means there might be oil or gas or both," a senior Petrobangla official told the FE.

The company shared its offshore gas survey results with Petrobangla Tuesday and the commercial viability of hydrocarbon of both these structures would be announced through consultation early next month, the Petrobangla official said.

"We are quite satisfied with the data we acquired through the survey," a Total official told the FE.

Terming the outcome of the survey campaign 'good' the Total official hoped to demonstrate details of the outcome soon.

Total, the world's fourth largest energy company, invested around US$ 18 million to conduct the extensive three dimensional (3D) survey in both these structures in the Bay near Myanmar border that covers 18,367 square kilometres.

If the company's discovery matches the commercial viability, it would be one of the biggest hydrocarbon findings in the country's history, a senior energy ministry official said.

Total would then make a work-plan for field development and submit it to Petrobangla for approval.

If all the exploration activities goes smoothly, oil or gas production from these offshore structures would be initiated within three to four years.

This would be Total's entry into oil and gas production in Bangladesh.

Total is already present in the refining and marketing sectors in Bangladesh, with activities in lubricants and liquefied petroleum gas.

Total holds a 30 per cent stake including the operatorship in these two blocks. Irish oil company Tullow has 32 per cent, followed by Thai energy giant PTTEP 30 per cent and US companies Oakland and Rexwood eight per cent stakes in these structures.

State energy corporation Petrobangla rented both the blocks to US joint venture Rexwood-Oakland during the country's first round energy bidding in January 1997, but the companies did not carry out any exploration work due to poor gas demand in the country during that time. Later Tullow bought majority shares from the US companies. In 2006 Tullow sold its 60 per cent stake to Total, which recently sold half of its stake to the PTTEP.

Blocks 17 and 18 are close to Myanmar's prospective gas blocks. Myanmar discovered around 6.0 TCF of gas reserves in the adjacent offshore gas blocks discovered recently by several international oil and gas companies (IOCs).

Petrobangla officials said the discovery of gas at the offshore fields could bring double cheers to the country, now facing soaring energy crisis amid booming industrial growth.

"If it is found that the discovery is a big one, it will bring to an end to the chronic gas crisis in the southeastern Chittagong region within a few years," said an official.

These structures could also contribute significantly to meet the mounting energy demands across the country.

Major industries, power and fertiliser plants across the country have been facing acute crisis of energy since last year as the demand exceeded supply by a great length.

Country's current gas production is now hovering around 1800 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) against the demand for over 2050 mmcfd.