Chevron’s Bangladesh exit plan likely to see setback as court orders
by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, April 11 (Xinhua) — Amid growing apprehensions that the U.S. oil and gas giant Chevron may exit Bangladesh without sharing a due part of its profit with its employees, the country’s a High Court Division bench on Monday directed the government not to release the due funds of employers of Chevron Bangladesh to the company.
The High Court bench of Justice Zinat Ara and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo came up with the order following a writ petition filed by 538 Chevron employees on Dec. 15 last year.
To counter a prolonged slump in energy prices, Chevron last year announced to sell about 10 billion U.S. dollars worth of assets in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines by this year.
Through Chevron subsidiaries, the company operates three Bangladeshi fields, Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulavi Bazar, under production-sharing contracts (PSC) signed with the Bangladeshi government, represented by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources, and state-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation, or Petrobangla.
A Bangladeshi government had earlier said it has hired a global energy consultancy group to assess the natural gas assets in the fields in northeastern Bangladesh for which the U.S. company Chevron, which entered Bangladesh by buying Unocal Corporation in 2006, is seeking about 2 billion U.S. dollars.
In 2005, U.S. company Unocal had bought Occidental’s assets in Bangladesh. Under the care of Occidental a devastating explosion had occurred at a gas field “Magurchara” on June 14, 1997.
Petitioners’ lawyer Barrister Omar Sadat told journalists Monday that Chevron employees worry that they won’t have their due payments under “Workers Participation Fund” if it leaves Bangladesh by selling its shares.
According to the lawyer, some 76 million U.S. dollars are due to the employers of Chevron since 2006.
He further mentioned that the HC bench said it will decide in its final verdict how the employers of Chevron will get the due funds as a rule is pending before it.
Spokesperson of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Aslam Uddin had earlier told Xinhua that they are awaiting an assessment report by a foreign consultant to decide whether a state-run corporation will place a formal bid to buy Chevron assets in three gas fields of the country.
According to Chevron website, its net daily production in 2015 averaged 720 million cubic feet of natural gas and 3,000 barrels of condensate which is liquid hydrocarbon produced with natural gas.
A government source on condition of anonymity also earlier said before making a decision on Chevron’s assets Bangladesh may again raise its voice for compensation for Magurchara explosion that triggered huge catastrophe in the 840 meter below of surface level in the afore said gas field.
The explosion on June 14, 1997 also reportedly cost too much for the environment, as it denuded about 700-acre reserved forest, destroyed dozens of tea gardens and hampered greatly the lives of numerous workers and tribal people living nearby, amounting to losses worth millions of dollars.
Petrobangla as of June last year reportedly received 120 million taka (about 1.51 million U.S. dollars) and got gas worth over 1.5 million U.S. dollars as compensation from the U.S. company.
A Chevron official talking to a local media recently claimed that all substantiated compensation claims pertaining to the June 1997 have been settled.