The companies believe that Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in world, may be sitting on some of the biggest gas reserves in the world and are using "political as well diplomatic clout" to unlock one of the most fiercely contested global exploration rounds in recent years.

Over the past week, the United States government whose ambassador Bill Richardson recently visited Dhaka, and the British government have made personal representations to the Bangladesh government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Intense lobbying and internal pressures within Bangladesh has generated a massive international concern over delay in awarding the licenses, due to have been announced in December last year. In reckoning are major companies like Shell, Chevron, Mobil, Texaco, Unocal andTotal.

International interest and lobbying has come to the fore by Bangladesh's proximity to India, considered one of the fastest growing energy markets, where demand is outpacing domestic supplies. Western estimates suggest Bangladesh could earn anything upto five hundred million US dollars a year from a single pipeline carrying between one to two billion cusecs of gas to eastern India.

Foreign companies believe that gas from Bangladesh would have a competitive advantage in the Indian market over alternative supplies from the Gulf or Central Asia, which face political and technical problems in piping large quantities of gas to India.

But the very mention of the word supplies to India has already run up against Bangladesh's divisive and internal politicking, with opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia, using the bait of alleged sale of gas to India, as a political weapon to flog her Awami League rival.

Financial Times said a conservative estimate suggests that Bangladesh may be sitting on reservesbetween 30,000 billion to 50,000 billion cusecs feet -- upto twice the amount in the North Sea with some estimates going as high as 80,000 billion cusecs ft.

Sources said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who has personally assumed charge of unlocking the international bidding, may pick the winners by this month end. Media reports said issue had been further clouded by allegations that some of the global oil companies may have curried political favours.

Media reports quoted Bangladesh officials as admitting they had been overwhelmed by the degree of intense international interest in the licensing rounds. "Added to this is now a perception that we may be harbouring many world class gas fields," they said.

Bangladesh Energy Minister Tawfiqe Elahi was quoted by media reports as saying his government was not prepared for such a massive international response. He defended the selection process, promising that the final decisions would be fully and publicly justified.

There is intense British interest inthe exploration licensing, with three major British firms in the fray. Media reports here suggest that most of the global bidders were likely to push the government to approve early exports, should their exploration prove successful. Experts believe that gas reserves from the first two foreign projects already on stream would be sufficient to cover the domestic needs for years to come.

The beeline for Bangladesh by global oil giants came last year, when Cairn Energy, a British company stuck gold with their prospecting in the Sangu fields near Cox Bazar offshore.