The US oil company, ConocoPhillips, wanted all eight offshore blocks, instead of the two offered, for which they had submitted bids, but the government is unlikely to award them the whole lot, sources in Petrobangla and energy ministry said.
   The company in a letter sent last week to the energy ministry proposed that it should be awarded all the eight blocks.
   This latest proposal came after the ConocoP officials held negotiations with Petrobangla early this month over signing production sharing contract for the two blocks they have been offered.
   The tender evaluation committee in 2008 had recommended for awarding ConocoP all the eight deep sea blocks for which it had submitted tenders.
   But in August this year, the government decided to award it two blocks, No 10 and No 11, as it wanted to avoid further complications over disputed areas with India and Myanmar.
   Besides, the government felt it would be strategically risky to award all the off-shore blocks to a single company.
   ‘The company sent a letter last week saying that they wanted all the eight blocks instead of the two offered and that they are prepared to keep away from the disputed maritime areas from their exploration activities,’ said a source in the energy ministry.
   He, however, said that the government did not take any decision yet, but it is unlikely that the US company would be given all eight blocks.
   When asked about ConocoP's latest proposal, Prime minister's adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury declined to give his comment over the letter.
   ‘But I can only say that the government has already taken its decision to award two blocks to ConocoP and this decision has not been changed,’ he told on Monday.
   Replying to a query whether ConocoP would sign PSC for the two blocks, a high official of the ministry said that they were expecting that the company would sign the PSCs.
   Petrobangla and ConocoPhillips on October 6-8 held negotiations over signing PSCs for the two blocks and agreed in principle to include a provision in the model PSC that no exploration works would be carried out in areas that overlapped zones claimed by India and Myanmar.
   During the negotiations, ConocoP officials informed Petrobangla of a letter sent by Myanmar cautioning the company not to undertake exploration in the offshore block 11, insisting that some parts of it overlapped Myanmar's maritime boundary.
   Besides, India recently claimed that some of the areas of block 10 and shallow sea block 5 overlapped India's maritime territory. But both India and Myanmar have already intruded into Bangladesh's maritime boundary for oil and gas exploration.
   Petrobangla also held primary negotiations with Irish company Tullow for signing a PSC for shallow sea block No 5.
   The government move to award three blocks to international oil companies, however, is being opposed by some rights groups, academics and left-leaning political parties. They have demanded scrapping of the PSCs as they contain a provision for gas export.