Shell keen on laying Indo-Bangla gas pipeline

Shell keen on laying Indo-Bangla gas pipeline
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

Calcutta, Jan 22: The Royal Dutch/Shell group is keen to lay a pipeline linking natural gas users in India with the reserves in Bangladesh that are being explored by it, according to group managing director Phil Watts.

Watts, who is also the group's chief executive officer exploration and production, was in Calcutta to "find out" prospective customers for the gas reserves in Bangladesh.

The company may consider a consortium, if needed, to implement the project after finalising the project report and getting consents from the governments of the two countries.

Shell is one of the world's largest integrated oil and gas companies with a market capitalisation of over $200 billion and operations in more than 130 countries.

The company is exploring four gas blocks (15, 15, 5 & 10) in Bangladesh since 1997, and is operating the producing Sangu field there. It needs to lay pipelines to export the gas to be produced there to its "natural destination" India.

"Shell has been pursuing a gas pipeline export scheme from Bangladesh for the last two years," Watts told `The Financial Express' in an interview. Shell is preparing proposals for the project and after completion it would submit them to the governments of Bangladesh and India.

He believes India is going to become the fifth largest economy in the world and for that it would need lot of power and a large part of it could be generated using natural gas, considered the "cleanest fuel".

"Given the proximity of the vast Indian market, it is a natural destination for gas from Bangladesh," he said.

Watts has already met officials of both the countries. Today he met, among others, West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, who is reported to have taken a very positive approach to the issue.

Watt believes the pipeline gas in West Bengal will fuel economic and industrial growth, together with improving the lives of the people.

When it was pointed out that Bangladesh believes that it does not have enough reserves for exports after meeting its own requirement, Watts said: "International experts believe Bangladesh can export gas even after meeting its own requirement."