Bangladesh News

A scientific survey group has found for the first time in the Bay of Bengal a thick sedimentation of elusive oolitic carbonate, which promises prime underground reservoir of oil.
The scientists extracted tiny, light-brown, rounded oolites from a depth of 125 meters off the Sundarbans coast, and found out through sonar map study that sediments accumulated in about 6-meter thick layers over a vast area between offshore blocks 21B and 20B, and beyond.

“But this study was not aimed at exploring mineral resources. Specific and advance studies will be able to determine the actual extent of oolite layers and the potential of oil and gas reserves,” said a source close to the survey, conducted by German geo-scientific and natural resources institution BGR and the Bremen University of Germany with partial funding from the US Ocean Drilling Programme.

Six Bangladeshi experts from the navy, Geological Survey of Bangladesh, Petrobangla and Chittagong Port Authorities also participated in the survey that was primarily aimed at studying the sedimentation in the Bay throughout June and July on the basis of a one-page agreement with the government, sources said.

Bangladesh could have obtained detailed geological data from this survey if the agreement was better or done in consultation with local experts. Still, the brief and sketchy sonic and seismic data that the Germans shared with Bangladesh suggest how invaluable this data could be.

The survey also produced seismic data covering more than 1,000km areas. The BGR shared this data with the government in a raw form, which calls for advance scientific analysis and interpretation, for which the country is not equipped.

Sandstone, which highlights potentials of gas resources, was found predominantly in Bangladesh but existence of these highly permeable and porous carbonate rocks was not known before.

Each spherical grain of ooid sand, no larger than 2mm, forms around a nucleus of fecal matter or shell debris in a process similar to that of a pearl’s formation. Over time, this oolitic sand accumulates in thick layers that cover hundreds of square kilometers. Upon burial, these layers eventually form a porous carbonate rock that can store large quantities of oil and gas. Between one-third and a half of the world’s oil and gas reserves come from underground reservoirs in carbonate rocks, experts say.

Sources quoting survey team leader Dr HR Kudrass said that the oolite layer used to be the beach of southwestern region 20,000 years ago during the ice age.

This region is the largest delta in the world, and its rivers are accumulating sediment at the quickest rate towards a deep sea fan, which is the largest in the world. “Sedimentation thickness at places is 20km,” said sources, quoting Kudrass.

This unusual sedimentation should have increased Bangladesh’s land by 15 meters a year towards the sea. But as there is a submarine canyon in the southwestern Bay down by the Sundarbans, the sedimentation spreads up to Sri Lanka. The submarine canyon is so deep that it was named Swatch of No Ground (Song) during the British regime.

WEAK DEAL
Sources said that had the foreign ministry consulted with local geological experts before signing its one-page agreement with the BGR, it could have been a much better deal for the country. The BGR conducted the same study twice– during the nineties and the eighties. This time, the survey team was better equipped.

“Scientific or not, this data is valuable to oil companies. That is why the BGR did not get any permission to study the Indian waters,” a source observed. “We don’t know where this data will eventually land to. Whatever data we have got out of this study is in raw form, and we won’t be able to interpret it as efficiently as the international oil companies do.”

The BGR even asked money when the government wished to obtain its data on the delta gathered in the nineties.

“We don’t know exactly who gave them previous permissions and why. If we are not benefited from a study, why should we allow foreign countries to scan our region? Even this time, the foreign ministry did not think enough about our interest before signing the agreement.”

Sources said that the BGR conducted the same survey in mid-eighties on the basis of an agreement with Petrobangla, which focused more on geological information and extensive data sharing. As a result, Bangladesh was immensely benefited.

ORDEAL OF LOCAL EXPERTS
Due to the weak agreement with the BGR, six government officials aboard the scientific vessel RV Sonne ended up in a series of embarrassing situations. Two officials joined the survey mission on June 5 and the others on July 5 upon government orders and with an understanding that the BGR would provide them with daily wages.

Aboard the ship, the officials discovered that the agreement said nothing about per diem or other expenses. So, they had to work for nearly two months literally at the mercy of the BGR team.

On completion of the survey, the BGR team declined to drop the officials at the Chittagong port and offered them to disembark from the ship in Penang, Malaysia, from where they would be able to fly back home.

The BGR would have to waste a day more in Bangladesh waters had it arranged the disembarkation in Chittagong and the rent of the ship a day was $30,000, cost of which was much higher than the airfare of us from Malaysia, an official in the team told The Daily Star.

As the officials agreed to this proposition, the BGR on July 12 emailed the foreign ministry for issuance of the government orders (GO) to land in Malaysia. The ministry mailed back on July 22, asking the team to wait for the GO. The GO was issued on July 25, after the ship had left the Bangladesh waters, making the officials sick to death over the possibility of an imminent ‘illegal’ status on arrival in Malaysia.

After receiving the GO, the officials, however, obtained Malaysian visa with the help of the management of the RV Sonne. On July 30, they were dropped in Penang, from where they flew to Dhaka via Singapore the next day.