Oil, Gas Exploration
Engage Bangladeshi expatriates
Parliamentary body tells Bapex
A parliamentary panel yesterday asked Bapex to engage renowned Bangladeshi expatriates, working in foreign oil and gas exploration companies, in its operations in order to make the state-owned company self-reliant.
Members of the parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings said the country still has to depend on foreign experts for exploration of oil and gas.
“Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Company (Bapex) will be benefited largely if it gets the service of the Bangladeshi expatriates working in foreign oil and gas exploration companies,” ABM Ghulam Mostafa, chief of the parliamentary watchdog, told the meeting.
“There are many Bangladeshi expatriates working efficiently in different oil and gas companies abroad,” Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal, a member of the panel, said after the meeting at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban in the capital.
“A Bangladeshi is also working in the US-based ConocoPhillips, which was awarded for exploring oil and gas in our offshore area,” said Badal, also a Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal MP.
He said the committee has asked the Bapex high officials to immediately contact such Bangladeshi expatriates and offer them work opportunities along with financial packages and other facilities, similar to the ones that they are getting from the foreign companies.
It is imperative to turn Bapex into a self-reliant organisation, specially after winning huge maritime areas in the Bay of Bengal, he added.
The committee asked Bapex to submit paper work related to the issue at the committee's next meeting scheduled next month.
It also recommended that the government give an Independence Day award to Bapex for playing a 'historic' role in exploring the country's oil and gas resources.
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