Canadian oil company Niko Resources is pushing the government to give its consent to the company’s prayer for time for the hearing of a case against the company for two blowouts at Tengratila gas field in 2005.
Officials concerned said that Niko, which won two cases on similar issues against the government and Petrobangla at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2014, was now trying to get time for the hearing of the case as it wanted to the case pending with the Dhaka District Judge’s Court.
Niko’s lawyer at ICSID Barton Legum on May 12 requested Bangladesh’s lawyer Luis Gonzalez Garcia to pursue the government to give its consent to the company’s prayer for deferring the hearing to July 14 from June 30, the officials said.
Luis on the same day emailed the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, Nasrul Hamid, Petrobangla chairman Istiaque Ahmad and the personal secretary to law minister Anisul Huq in this regard, the officials said.
Istiaque on May 13 sent a letter to the energy division seeking directives about Petrobangla’s response to the email.
‘It is astonishing that Niko is trying to get the government’s consent to its prayer for time,’ an official said.
It might be a part of a move for an outside court settlement of the case, after the ICSID judgement has gone against Petrobangla, he said.
Allegations have it that the defeat of Petrobangla has lost the cases at ICSID because of the failure of the authorities concerned in placing arguments, facts and findings during the hearing.
In its judgement, handed down on September 11, 2014, the ICSID asked Petrobangla to pay Niko $25,312,747 and Tk 139,988,337 as per Niko’s invoices for gas supplied from Feni gas field between November 2004 and April 2010. It also asked Petrobangla to pay a significant amount of money as interest for the outstanding gas bills.
In June 2011, Niko was proved guilty of negligence and was penalised by a Canadian court for bribing the then state minister for power and energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain in 2005 to get exemption from its responsibilities for the twin blowouts at Tengratila gas field.
Petrobangla, in a bid to realise compensation for the damage done at Tengratila gas field in 2005, withheld Niko’s payment for the gas from Feni field with retrospective effect from November 2004 until Niko stopped its operation at the Feni field in 2010.
Petrobangla had made the decision following a High Court order that had ruled that no payment should be made until Niko paid Tk 750 crore compensation for the damage caused by the twin blowouts.
The government and the state-run Petrobangla on June 15, 2008 filed a suit with a Dhaka district court against Niko, claiming Tk 750 crore in compensation.
On April 1 and June 16 in 2010, Niko filed two cases seeking ‘an award for payment of the outstanding invoices for the gas delivered and a declaration that it was not liable for damages in relation to the blowouts